Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer, both aiming to be the Democratic nominee in the gubernatorial race, missed a vote on the Laken Riley bill. (Photos from Gottheimer’s office and Chance Yeh/Getty Images)
Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, who are both seeking the Democratic nomination for governor this year, are catching flak from their fellow candidates for not voting on a key immigration bill in the House on Tuesday.
The bill, named after 22-year-old Laken Riley, who was killed by an undocumented migrant who had been previously arrested for shoplifting, aims to deport undocumented immigrants charged with non-violent crimes. It cleared the House with support from nearly all Republicans and 159 Democrats.
Other than Gottheimer and Sherrill, the rest of New Jersey’s House Democrats voted against the bill. Two mayors seeking the Democratic nomination for governor this year — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop — criticized their rivals for not voting. Fulop called Gottheimer and Sherrill “cowardly.”
“It’s disappointing that they care more about politics than showing leadership or demonstrating any core convictions,” Fulop said, adding, “They should have voted no.”
Baraka also said he would have voted against it.
“Any absence of Democrats during this vote is deeply disappointing. I hope the race for governor doesn’t distract from protecting the very people you claim to serve. Leadership demands action, especially when it matters most,” Baraka said in a statement.
Spokespeople for the other two Democrats hoping to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy — former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney — did not respond to a request to comment and declined to comment, respectively.
Jack Ciattarelli, who is running for the Republican nomination, also blasted Gottheimer and Sherrill for “gutlessly ducking a vote” on the bill. He slammed them for not having “the courage to stand up to their extreme far left base.”
The bill would require undocumented migrants and asylum seekers charged with theft, burglary, larceny, or shoplifting to be detained and potentially deported. It would also empower state attorneys general to sue the U.S. attorney general if an undocumented immigrant is detained, released, and goes on to commit crimes that harm the state or residents. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation Friday, and more Democrats are indicating their support.
A spokesman for Gottheimer (D-05) said the congressman would have voted for the GOP-led bill, and noted Gottheimer supported the bill last Congressional session. A request for comment from Sherrill (D-11) was not returned. Sherrill voted no on the bill last year.
Neither Gottheimer nor Sherill have a history of missing a lot of votes. According to independent website GovTrack.us, Gottheimer has missed about 2.6% of roll call votes since he took office in January 2017, which is on par with the median of 2.2% across House members. But his number of missed votes shot up in the second half of 2024, around the time he became serious about launching a bid for governor.
Sherrill has missed about 3.7% of votes from January 2019 to December 2024, with most of those votes also coming in the latter half of 2024, according to the website.
Dan Cassino is a professor of government and law at Fairleigh Dickinson University and executive director of the FDU poll. He said attacking incumbent officeholders for not showing up to work has historically been a “very powerful attack,” particularly in congressional elections. It may be less effective when someone’s next potential job is not in Congress, he added.
“I understand where the playbook is coming from. If I’m the opponent, I look back and I say, ‘Well this is normally a very effective attack, so we’ll use it,’” he said.
This particular bill didn’t pass with tight margins, so it wouldn’t have made a difference if Gottheimer and Sherrill had voted on it.
Cassino added that missing a vote on a controversial bill could be strategic. The damage from skipping the vote may be less than the damage from taking a specific stand on it, he said.
Experts have attributed Democrats’ losses in the last election in part to their approach to immigration. While Cassino expects immigration and ICE detention centers to take center stage throughout the Democratic primary for governor this year, he said the attack on Gottheimer’s and Sherrill’s missed votes would have come regardless of the bill’s focus.
“This is easy political aim to take,” he said, adding that “if this had been a vote that came down to one or two people where they would have actually been decisive or important, I think we’d be having a very different conversation.”
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