Tempers flared and accusations flew in the final debate of New Jersey’s 2025 gubernatorial race, as Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill squared off in New Brunswick on October 8. But it wasn’t just the usual political sparring over taxes, energy, and Donald Trump that captured headlines—it was the explosive claim, made repeatedly by Sherrill, that Ciattarelli “killed tens of thousands of people” through his former business ties to the opioid industry. Now, just days later, Ciattarelli’s campaign has announced plans to sue Sherrill for defamation, thrusting the already contentious race into even stormier waters.
The final debate, held four weeks before the November 4 general election, was expected to be heated. Both candidates have been locked in a close contest to succeed outgoing Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, with recent voter registration trends showing Republicans gaining ground in what has long been a blue state. According to PIX11 and Patch, the debate quickly turned personal, with Sherrill directly accusing Ciattarelli of profiting from the opioid epidemic and misleading the public about the dangers of addictive painkillers.
“I think you’re trying to divert from the fact that you killed tens of thousands of people by printing your misinformation, your propaganda, and then getting paid to develop an app so that people could more easily get the opioids once they were addicted,” Sherrill said during the debate, as reported by Patch and PIX11. She doubled down on her assertion later in the night, stating, “Tens of thousands here as you published misinformation, as you got more people addicted, as you got paid to develop an app so that more people could get more opioids and die.”
These accusations refer back to controversy that first emerged during Ciattarelli’s 2021 gubernatorial campaign. At the time, critics alleged that his former medical publishing company—sold in 2017—had received over $12 million, mostly from pharmaceutical companies, to promote opioids as low-risk treatments for chronic pain. According to Fox29 and NJ.com, critics charged that the company’s training materials echoed pharma industry talking points that downplayed the dangers of opioid addiction, contributing to a crisis that has devastated families across New Jersey and the nation.
Ciattarelli, visibly indignant during the debate, forcefully denied the allegations. “With regard to everything she just said about my professional career, which provided for my family, it’s a lie. I’m proud of my career. I got to walk at my college graduation. I never broke the law,” he retorted, according to NJ.com and PIX11. After the debate, he called the accusations a “lie” in remarks to reporters, and his campaign quickly moved to escalate the matter.
On October 10, Ciattarelli’s campaign announced that it would file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill the following week. “In a time where political violence and violent rhetoric are becoming all too prevalent, Mikie Sherrill baselessly and recklessly accusing a political opponent of mass murder in a televised debate crosses the line,” campaign strategist Chris Russell said in a statement shared with multiple outlets, including PIX11 and Fox29. Russell further described Sherrill’s comments as “a clearly defamatory attack that shocked the moderators, press, and public alike.”
The Sherrill campaign, for its part, has not backed down. A spokesperson accused Ciattarelli of trying to distract voters from his business record. “Jack has still not addressed anything about this company he ran, he still has not addressed that app he was paid to develop, because instead he’s trying to divert from any accountability, and this is pretty typical of Jack Ciattarelli,” Sherrill’s camp told Patch.
The controversy over the opioid crisis is not the only personal attack that’s marked this campaign. Ciattarelli has repeatedly criticized Sherrill for refusing to release her disciplinary records from the U.S. Naval Academy, where she was barred from walking at her 1994 graduation amid the fallout from a well-publicized cheating scandal. “The difference between me and the congresswoman: I got to walk at my college graduation,” Ciattarelli quipped during the debate, as reported by PIX11 and Fox29.
Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman and former federal prosecutor, has maintained that she was barred from the ceremony because she refused to turn her back on friends implicated in the scandal. She’s blasted the Trump administration over the release of her files, arguing that the episode is being used unfairly as a political weapon.
The intensity of the attacks reflects just how high the stakes are in this year’s governor’s race. Democrats still hold a numerical advantage in voter registration, but the Republican Party has added roughly 164,000 new voters since the last gubernatorial election in 2021—a jump of 10 percent—while Democrats have lost over 51,000 registered voters in the same period, according to NJ.com. The race is expected to be close, with both candidates banking on mobilizing their bases and winning over undecided voters in the final weeks.
Meanwhile, the broader context of the opioid epidemic looms large. New Jersey, like much of the country, has suffered devastating losses from opioid overdoses in recent years. The issue of corporate responsibility for the crisis has become a flashpoint in American politics, with pharmaceutical companies facing lawsuits and public scrutiny for their role in marketing addictive painkillers. Sherrill’s accusations against Ciattarelli tap into this larger narrative, though fact-checkers such as PolitiFact have noted there is no evidence that Ciattarelli “killed” anyone.
The upcoming lawsuit promises to keep the debate over truth, accountability, and campaign rhetoric in the spotlight. Legal experts note that defamation cases involving public figures are notoriously difficult to win, requiring proof that the statements were made with actual malice and reckless disregard for the truth. Still, the move allows Ciattarelli to signal to voters that he won’t let personal attacks go unanswered—and ensures that the controversy will remain front and center as voters head to the polls.
As the clock ticks down to Election Day, New Jerseyans face a stark choice between two candidates with sharply contrasting visions—and a campaign that’s become as much about character and trust as it is about policy. Early in-person voting runs from October 25 to November 2, and the voter registration deadline is October 14. With passions running high and both sides digging in, the outcome may hinge on which candidate can convince voters they’re telling the truth—and who can weather the political storms of a race where the personal has become deeply, and perhaps irreversibly, political.
