New Jersey legislation codifying the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism is splitting the Democratic field in the gubernatorial race, after one leading candidate said last week he’d veto the bill.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) told JI this week that she supported legislation under consideration in the state that would codify the IHRA definition as New Jersey’s official definition of antisemitism for assessing cases of antisemitic discrimination. “I’ve supported the IHRA definition in the U.S. House, and would support the current state Senate bill to combat the alarming rise of antisemitism in New Jersey,” Sherrill said in a statement to JI.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-NJ) campaign indicated in a statement that he also supports the bill. His campaign manager, Chelsea Brossard, noted that he “helped write and pass” the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which codifies the IHRA definition at the Department of Education. 

“Since October 7th, antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed to an all-time high in New Jersey. This is unacceptable, and Josh will continue working tirelessly at all levels of government to protect Jewish students and families from all forms of hate,” Brossard said.

Those comments come after Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who has touted his Jewish heritage on the campaign trail, said he was opposed to the legislation, arguing that it could infringe on criticism of Israel and ultimately exacerbate antisemitism.

Three other candidates in the race — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney — did not respond to requests for comment on the IHRA issue.

Fulop and Sherrill have both recently come under scrutiny for campaigning alongside progressive leaders who’ve been outspoken against Israel. 

A Jewish leader in the state told JI that Fulop’s IHRA stance, in combination to his ties to anti-Israel figures including Sadaf Jaffer, an outspoken anti-Israel former state assembly member, have generated growing frustration and a sense of betrayal among members of the Jewish community.

Fulop aggressively rejected the notion that his IHRA stance was motivated by politics, and said his comments have been misconstrued by various constituencies. “What I said was a very thoughtful, careful, deliberate answer that serves very little political benefit because I answered it honestly,” Fulop told JI.

He said that, in the same comments about IHRA, he had supported the New Jersey-Israel Commission and anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation and said that Gov. Phil Murphy had not been aggressive enough in response to antisemitism on college campuses.

He also said Jaffer was only a campaign volunteer and that they don’t agree on all issues. “Anybody who says that I’m antisemitic or I don’t sympathize with the Jewish community is totally misguided, and they’re purely political.”

Another Jewish leader said that many Jewish politicos see Gottheimer’s record as the strongest on antisemitism and supporting Israel, but that without an aggressive advocacy effort highlighting the differences in the candidates’ records, the Jewish vote could end up split among various candidates, with voters prioritizing other issues.

A key political dynamic in the race is becoming the fight between New Jersey’s Democratic machine and those casting themselves as outsiders opposing that machine. Institutional support has largely been divided between Sherrill and Gottheimer, but some leaders who had initially backed Gottheimer recently switched their allegiance to Sherrill.

“Party leadership in New Jersey is a little bit scared,” Dan Cassino, the executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, told JI. “There’s a strong incentive for that group, for institutional Democrats, to unify behind one candidate and make sure that candidate gets the nomination, to preserve at least the perception that they’re able to pick the candidates and therefore maintain their power.”

If Sherrill and Gottheimer split the moderate vote, one of the other candidates could muster enough support to achieve victory. No reliable polling is available in the race at this point.

Fulop and Baraka seemed to pick up momentum from strong performances in a recent debate and have been making strides in fundraising, Cassino added. In that debate, Sherrill appeared to be “riding the fence,” he continued, and avoiding controversial policy positions, while Gottheimer was on the receiving end of criticism from several other candidates.

As they’re trying to lock down a winning coalition, some candidates are trying to balance appealing to both left-wing constituencies critical of Israel and the state’s sizable Arab and Muslim populations, as well as the state’s significant Jewish population and the moderate voters they’ll need to win the general election.

Baraka’s candidacy could raise concerns in the Jewish community given that his father, poet Amiri Baraka, claimed in a 2002 poem that Israelis knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance. A Baraka-backed initiative in Newark held an event on Oct. 7, 2023, honoring the elder Baraka, which featured multiple speakers who have been accused of antisemitism. Baraka has defended his father from accusations of antisemitism.

A Jewish leader in the state said that Baraka’s base largely coincides with anti-Israel parts of the Democratic Party.

Sweeney, a moderate Democrat and the former senate president, supported anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation when he was in the state Senate and led legislation to combat antisemitism in schools in 2019 which largely utilized the IHRA definition. Hailing from southern New Jersey, his base of support is expected to come largely from that part of the state, potentially including some Jewish voters in the Cherry Hill area.

The Jewish leader said that Sweeney’s record on Jewish issues has been unobjectionable.

Spiller, the former mayor of Montclair, N.J., could face issues among Jewish voters in the state over concerns about antisemitism in New Jersey’s public schools, though he has offered condemnations of antisemitism in the past. He’s leaning into education issues on the trail. The Jewish leader described the teachers’ union as having a poor record on Israel issues.