NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Mikie Sherrill, the four-term congresswoman and former Navy helicopter pilot who cast her November election in New Jersey as a victory over President Donald Trump's vision for the country, was inaugurated Tuesday as the state's 57th governor.
Sherrill, 54, is just the second woman to lead the state of nearly 9.5 million people. She succeeds Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat who was elected twice, marking the first time in more than six decades a political party has controlled the New Jersey governor's office for three straight terms.
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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill stands as an honor guard passes by during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill prepares to speak after taking the oath of office during an inauguration ceremony, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People stand and applaud for New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill holds up a just signed executive order during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill reacts as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill greets supporters as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill waves as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - New Jersey Gov.-elect Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., left, prepares for a television interview at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
She swept to victory over her Trump-endorsed GOP rival in part by pinning blame for high costs on the president's tariffs and promising that her first action once in office would be to order a freeze on skyrocketing utility rates.
Sherrill spoke about New Jersey’s role in the Revolutionary War and quoted from the Declaration of Independence’s grievances against the king, drawing a comparison to Trump.
“We see a president illegally usurping power,” she said. “He has unconstitutionally enacted a tariff regime to make billions for himself and his family, while everyone else sees costs go higher and higher. Here, we demand people in public service actually serve the public.”
She adopted a defiant tone against the Trump administration, saying the state would not remain quiet in the face of communities living in fear of the president's immigration crackdown.
“These are some weary years,” she said. “But I’ll be damned if in this state, at this time, we cry any silent tears.”
A message seeking a response was sent to the White House.
During her speech she also signed two executive orders, one declaring a freeze on utility rates, which have been rising sharply, and another aimed at establishing new sources of electricity production including solar and nuclear.
Sherrill took the oath of office on a copy of the Constitution owned by the state's first governor in Newark, the state's largest city whose voters made up a key component of her winning coalition.
It is a departure from previous inaugurations, which have included military artillery salutes along the Delaware River outside the statehouse in Trenton. Tuesday's ceremony included a similar gun salute and a military helicopter flyover.
She is being sworn in as her former congressional colleague Abigail Spanberger comes into office in as Virginia's governor after a similar double-digit victory over her Republican opponent and as the midterm elections start to come into sharper focus. Democrats are hopeful the president will be a drag on GOP candidates in key races across the country.
Sherrill takes over from Murphy, a former Obama administration ambassador and Wall Street finance executive, who delivered on a number of progressive promises over eight years, including raising taxes on income over $1 million, boosting the minimum wage, expanding early childhood education and fully funding the state workers' pension, which was underfunded for years before he took over.
Murphy said Friday in his final news conference that he has been in regular touch with Sherrill about the transition. He summed up his two terms as governor as having lived up to promises he made on the campaign trail.
“We were who we said would be,” Murphy said. “We didn’t campaign on my thesis and pull a fast one.”
He is also passing along a state budget that has swelled over the years, raising the prospect of potential shortfalls if state revenues dip as well as an unfunded promise to continue a property tax relief program begun in the governor’s second term.
Sherrill will have a Democrat-led Legislature to work with, one of more than a dozen where the party controls the legislature and governorship.
The first woman to be governor of New Jersey is Christine Todd Whitman, a two-term Republican who went on to serve as George W. Bush's Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
New Jersey's governorship has often switched back and forth between the parties. The last time the same party prevailed in a third straight gubernatorial election was in 1961.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill stands as an honor guard passes by during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill prepares to speak after taking the oath of office during an inauguration ceremony, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
People stand and applaud for New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill holds up a just signed executive order during her inauguration ceremony in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill reacts as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill greets supporters as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill waves as she arrives for her inauguration, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - New Jersey Gov.-elect Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., left, prepares for a television interview at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
ADAMUZ, Spain (AP) — A Barcelona commuter train crashed Tuesday after a retaining wall fell onto the tracks, Spanish emergency services said, just two days after a separate deadly train collision killed at least 42 people in southern Spain and injured dozens more.
The Barcelona crash came as emergency workers searched for more victims in the wreckage of Sunday's deadly train accident in southern Spain, and as the nation began three days of mourning for the victims.
Regional emergency services said 15 people were injured in Tuesday's crash, three of them seriously. Five others were in a less serious condition.
The commuter train crashed near the town of Gelida, located about 35 minutes outside of Barcelona.
Spain’s railway operator ADIF said the containment wall likely collapsed due to heavy rainfall that swept across the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia this week.
Antonio Sanz, the regional health minister of Andalusia, where Sunday's accident occurred, told Spanish media that the official toll from the accident had risen after another corpse was discovered in a severely damaged car.
Amid the tragedy, it emerged that a 6-year-old girl survived the wreck without major injury, while her parents, brother and cousin all perished.
Fidel Sáez lost his mother in the wreck, but his two children, his brother and a nephew survived. Their trip to the capital to see musical “The Lion King” turned into a nightmare on the way home.
“My brother has been taken off respirator. He told me that it was a miracle that he is alive. He had to get the children through a window,” Sáez told national TV broadcaster TVE. “He also asked me to tell the story of our mother, how good she was."
Health authorities said 39 people remained in hospitals on Tuesday morning, while 83 people were treated and discharged.
Among them was Emil Johnson, a Swedish citizen based in Malaga who was traveling to Madrid to renew his passport.
“It was probably two, three seconds. And everything was broken,” Jonsson, sitting in a wheelchair due to bruises on his ribs and back and dressed in part of a hospital gown, told reporters. “When we crashed, I didn’t know who was alive and who was dead.”
The Sunday crash happened at 7:45 p.m. when the tail end of a train carrying 289 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, derailed and crashed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern city, according to rail operator Adif.
The front of the second train, which was carrying 184 people, took the brunt of the impact, which knocked its first two carriages off the track and down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. Some bodies were found hundreds of meters (feet) from the crash site, according to Andalusia regional President Juanma Moreno.
Associated Press images taken Tuesday showed the remains of the first two cars of the second train, severed from the rest of the train and lying beside the tracks. Train seats had been ejected onto the rocks that provide packing under the tracks.
Further along the tracks, Civil Guard officers inspected the interior of the first train with dogs as passengers’ belongings lay scattered on the floor, according to the video distributed by authorities. The last carriage was lying on its side on the tracks, and the second-to-last carriage was leaning to one side with all its windows shattered.
Officials are continuing to investigate the causes of the accident that Puente has called “truly strange” since it occurred on a straight line and neither train was speeding.
Puente said officials had found a broken section of track that could possibly be related to the accident's origin, while insisting that is just a hypothesis and that it could take weeks to reach any conclusions.
“Now we have to determine if that is a cause or a consequence (of the derailment),” Puente told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
At this time, “all hypotheses are open,” Grande Marlaska told a press conference. Accident investigators will analyze “the rails at the point where the derailment began and inspect the wheels" of the first train in a laboratory, he added.
The train that jumped the track belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train belonged to Spain’s public train company, Renfe.
Iryo said in a statement Monday that its train was manufactured in 2022 and had passed a safety check on Jan. 15.
Puente and Renfe president Álvaro Fernández said that both trains were traveling well under the speed limit of 250 kph (155 mph) and “human error could be ruled out.”
The accident shook a nation that leads Europe in high-speed train mileage and takes pride in a network that is considered at the cutting edge of rail transport.
“It is undoubtedly a hard blow, and I have to work so it doesn’t affect the credibility and strength of the network,” Puente told Spanish national radio RNE on Tuesday when asked about the damage to the reputation of the rail system.
Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the scene of the accident, where they greeted emergency workers as well as some local residents who helped in the initial stages of the rescue. Afterwards, they went to hospital in Cordoba where many of the injured remain under care.
“We are all responsible for not looking away when the debris of a catastrophe is being cleared away," said Letizia to reporters after the visit.
Spain's Civil Guard is collecting DNA samples from family members who fear they have loved ones among the unidentified dead.
High-speed trains resumed service Tuesday from Madrid to Sevilla and Malaga, the largest cities in Andalusia, Spain’s most populous region, but passengers had to travel a stretch of the journey by buses provided by the rail service. Minister Puente said that the normal train service won’t resume until early February.
Spanish airline Iberia added more flights to southern cities until Sunday to help stranded travelers. Some bus companies also reinforced their services in the south.
Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Photographer Manu Sánchez in Adamuz and AP journalist Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed.
View of the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
View of the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visit the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press via AP) **SPAIN OUT**
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Guardia Civil officers collect evidence next to the wreckage of train cars involved in a collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
In this grab taken from video provided by Guardia Civil, rescue workers at the scene following a high-speed train collision, in Adamuz, Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Guardia Civil via AP)
An injured person is transported to the makeshift hospital in the sports center in Adamuz, near Córdoba, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, after a high-speed train derailed and collided with another train. (Francisco J. Olmo/Europa Press via AP)
In this grab taken from video provided by Guardia Civil, rescue workers at the scene after a high speed train collision,in Adamuz, Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Guardia Civil via AP)
Emergency crews work at the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Part of a wrecked train is photographed at the site of a train collision in Adamuz, southern Spain, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
