Former Biden and Bush press officials join forces to back Dem in key governor’s race

FIRST ON FOX: A former Biden administration spokesman and a veteran GOP communicator who both advise affordability-focused policy group the Cost Coalition are backing New Jersey Democrat Mikie Sherrill’s run for governor, Fox News Digital has learned.

“After analyzing the plans of both candidates in the New Jersey governor’s race, the difference between Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli on this defining issue of affordability is enormous,” Cost Coalition advisers Andrew Bates and Terry Holt wrote in their joint endorsement first obtained by Fox News Digital Wednesday. “Mikie Sherrill has bold ideas to use the specific powers of the governorship to make a difference that families will feel.”  

Bates served as the senior deputy press secretary of the White House under the Biden administration, and was a strong supporter of the former president amid his mounting health concerns during the 2024 election. Holt is a longtime Republican communicator and strategist who previously served as former Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s senior adviser, and as the national spokesman for the 2004 Bush–Cheney campaign before launching his own communications firm, Holt Communication Strategies. 

The Cost Coalition is a bipartisan group of President Donald Trump critics focused on lowering costs for U.S. residents and slashing the national debt by supporting leaders who “invest in solutions that strengthen the economic security of American families,” according to the group. 

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The Cost Coalition launched in April 2025, with Holt and Bates slamming Trump’s economic policies in comment to The Associated Press at the time, claiming the president’s “agenda is an economic crisis threatening your livelihood and standard of living.”

The Cost Coalition includes a handful of allies from former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign for the Oval Office, including Republican strategist Austin Weatherford, who headed up “Republicans for Harris;” Harris’ former national faith and engagement director Rev. Jennifer Butler; and the Harris campaign’s national director of veteran and military family engagement, The Associated Press reported in May. 

The Cost Coalition’s endorsement of Sherrill Wednesday argued that policies coming out of Washington, D.C., are “worsening the cost crisis in America, forcing New Jersey families to pay higher and higher prices for everything from utilities to groceries to health care.”

“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, it’s undeniable that New Jerseyans need economic relief from inflationary tariffs, cuts to American energy and health care made to lower taxes for the rich, and trillions in new debt,” the pair wrote. “To take on the growing affordability crisis, the bipartisan Cost Coalition was founded to support leadership that puts pocketbook issues of working families front and center.” 

Affordability is a top issue for both Sherrill and her Republican opponent for the governorship, Jack Ciattarelli, in a state notorious for sky-high taxes and chronic housing woes. Sherrill has campaigned on ordering a state of emergency over its electricity prices in order to freeze rates, supporting consolidating school districts to drive down property taxes, and lowering food costs by encouraging additional grocery store locations in the state to promote competition, the New Jersey Monitor reported.

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“Sherrill will reduce grocery costs by rooting out price gouging and ensuring small businesses can compete with big chains,” Holt and Bates continued in their endorsement. “And she will cut red tape that is keeping home prices high, stop pharmacy middle-men from making drug prices even higher than they already are, and help create and keep good-paying New Jersey jobs.”

“Sherrill has been straight with voters about her opposition to the inflationary Washington policies that are supercharging costs, including tariffs — a historic tax hike on working people — cuts to health care and clean energy, and adding trillions in new, unsustainable debt to give tax breaks to those who need them least,” they added. 

Ciattarelli, who is backed by Trump, also has focused his campaign on affordability, pinning blame on Democrats for skyrocketing electricity costs in the state, vowing to ban wind farms and instead further diversify the state’s energy resources with natural gas and nuclear power. Ciattarelli also has supported capping property taxes, restructuring income tax rates and rolling out incentives for small businesses, such as shielding small business owners from paying taxes on their first $100,000 in income. 

“Energy — electricity in specific — is one of the reasons why we have an affordability crisis,” the Republican candidate said during an October appearance on “Fox & Friends.” “The current administration has failed us. My opponent has doubled down. There’ll be no wind farms off our Jersey Shore, we’ll pull out of RGGI — which is a carbon tax policy that’s failed our state — and we’ll lower electricity bills on day one.”

Holt and Bates said they watched the New Jersey gubernatorial debates and gave Ciattarelli the “benefit of the doubt” before endorsing Sherrill. 

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“Unfortunately, Jack Ciattarelli and his Washington backers support the Washington agenda that is driving costs and inflation up,” they wrote. “To give Ciattarelli the benefit of the doubt, we watched the debate closely in case he produced any last-minute plans to put New Jersey’s economy first. But he gave Washington’s cost-raising record an ‘A plus.’ So the bipartisan Cost Coalition gives him an ‘F.'” 

The most recent endorsement follows other high-profile Democrats backing Sherrill ahead of Election Day, including former President Barack Obama filming a video endorsement ahead of hitting the campaign trail the weekend before the election, while former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also are joining Sherrill for campaign events. Former President Joe Biden has not made any public endorsements in 2025. 

Off-season election year 2025 will only hold a handful of high-profile races, such as the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections and the New York City mayoral race. 

The New Jersey election will be held Tuesday. 

Republicans, including Trump, have promoted that the deep blue state could flip red this year after the Trump campaign made inroads with Garden State voters during the 2024 race. Trump cut his 2020 loss from 16 points to six in 2024, with Republicans also flipping five countries red during the most recent federal election cycle.