JERSEY CITY, NJ – Wednesday marks exactly one year until the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in North America, and the party got started in the state where the final will be played.

It’s the first time since 1994 that the continent is playing host to the most popular sporting event in the world, and Phil Murphy’s New Jersey will be the site of the final.

MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford will host eight matches total, including five in the group stage and games in both the rounds of 32 and 16.

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In speaking to the media on Wednesday at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, the location of the official 2026 World Cup fan festival, Murphy predicted that the final at the home of the New York Giants and Jets will be “the most-watched event in human history.”

And for those in attendance, “the MetLife experience will be outstanding,” said Murphy.

“It will be secure and safe, easy to get in and out, great experience for the fans once they’re in the stadium,” Murphy continued. 

“This is what it’s all about. A bunch of preparation, and now being able to show our vision and get the reaction we got, which was excitement, energy, interest. This is what it’s all about,” added Alex Lasry, CEO of the NYNJ Host Committee. 

A general view of MetLife Stadium prior to a game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 11, 2023, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)

WITH WORLD CUP EXACTLY 1 YEAR OUT, USMNT LEGENDS SAY PRESSURE IS TURNED UP A NOTCH

“It’s real. We’re a year out, and to see the reaction from everyone of how much excitement there is for the World Cup makes us that much more excited.”

Liberty State Park is the home to tremendous views of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty while filled with greenery, making it the perfect spot for fans to gather. So, while Murphy will undoubtedly be at all eight World Cup games played at MetLife, there is a further responsibility to make sure that fans are entertained for the other 96 contests played in the other 15 host stadiums.

“The fan fest, it’s going to be beyond words. Twenty-two screens, capacity of 45,000. When we’re not at MetLife, we’ll be here watching. Those experiences are extraordinary. This will be no exception,” Murphy added.

2026 FIFA World Cup promotion is displayed at MetLife Stadium after an announcement by FIFA on Feb. 5, 2024, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  (Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEW press via Getty Images)

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“When you look at the ability for people to get here from New York and New Jersey, the iconic skyline and views from this, and then, when you’re just thinking of where to put on the party, there’s nowhere better,” Lasry said. “It’s a unique place to put on the most iconic fan fest that we’re looking at. To be able to do that in New Jersey with the view of New York, it kind of brings together the partnership.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup takes place in North America next year and will be featured on FOX Sports.

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Sean Higgins, Sherrill’s director of communications, said the campaign will focus on introducing Sherrill to the entire state over the next several months.

“She has dedicated her life to serving the people of this country, and the people of New Jersey,” he said., “Mikie is going to be a governor for everybody, she’s going to build more affordable housing and bring costs down, she’s going to deliver.”

Higgins said Sherrill is very different from Ciattarelli.

“Mikie is for New Jersey, and Ciattarelli is for Trump,” he said. “She’s ruthlessly focused on getting results, and I think that stands in stark contrast to Jack Ciattarelli, who is really the ghost of elections past and hasn’t really delivered a thing for New Jersey.”

At Sherrill’s headquarters, inside the ballroom of the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, supporter Roman Hirniak, of Wharton, said he was happy that his candidate won.

“I am a proud member of the Ukrainian-American community in New Jersey,” he said. “Congresswoman Sherrill has been one of our loudest voices on Capitol Hill, she has earned my support because she is a decent human being that understands what leadership should be like on the gubernatorial level.”

Another supporter, David Genova, of Montclair, said he’s backed  Sherrill since she first ran for Congress.

“She’s been very supportive of Montclair, especially during the pandemic,” he said. “I think she’s on the right and practical side of most issues and I think she’s going to be a great governor., Mikie knows how to get things done.”

During the primary campaign the gubernatorial candidates spent more than $122 million, making it the most expensive primary race in state history.

Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said recent polling projected Rep. Sherrill as the frontrunner, but a winner was hard to predict.

“We just did away with the county ballot line [in New Jersey] which gave preferential treatment to candidates who had the [major political] endorsements,” he said. “This time candidates were on their own, they had to make their own case, and that meant we couldn’t really model how this election was going to turn out.”

He said voter turnout for primary elections in New Jersey is usually low, and in this race voters were choosing between six different candidates, making it harder to predict voting trends.

“That means that the number of votes it takes to win the race is pretty low, and that at least raised the possibility that any of them could have gotten across that finish line,” he said.

Four years ago in the primary election for governor, about 12% of registered Democrats voted. Less than 400,000 ballots were cast in that race.

The general election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

TRENTON, N..J. (AP) — New Jersey voters on Tuesday will settle the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor in a contest that could send signals about how the public is responding to President Donald Trump’s agenda and how Democratic voters think their leaders should push back.

New Jersey is one of just two states with a race for governor this year — the other is Virginia — and the fact two-term Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is term-limited has created fresh drama for the open seat.

There’s a six-way race on the Democratic side that features several seasoned political figures. Trump’s endorsement of former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli may have given him a boost on the Republican side, where he faces four primary challengers.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday, but it’s not the only day of voting. Early in-person voting was held from June 3-8. Mail-in ballots were sent to voters beginning in April.

The contest hinges in part on New Jersey issues, including high property taxes and the soaring cost of living, but national politics are sure to figure in. Trump, who has long had a strong presence in New Jersey, waded into the race with his endorsement, attacking Democratic control of state government. Democrats are looking for a winning message and leadership after the sting of bitter losses in 2024.

“Because these are the first major elections since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, there’s a tremendous amount at stake simply through public perception,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship.

For Democrats? “They’ll just get further in a hole if they don’t hold this seat,” he said.

For Republicans? They could win because New Jersey tends to be purple during gubernatorial years, Dworkin said, but that would be viewed as a tremendous victory for Trump.

The Democrats running are Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City; U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill; teachers union President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. The Democratic campaign has been hard fought and pricey, with tens of millions spent in one of the country’s most expensive media markets.

On the Republican side, most of the candidates declared their support for the president’s agenda, pressing for a state-level version of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. They’ve also said they would end so-called sanctuary policies and, in a New Jersey-specific pitch, called for the end of the state’s 2020 law banning single-use plastic bags.

Ciattarelli has said he would sign an order on his first day in office ending New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive, which bars local police from cooperating with federal officials on civil immigration matters. He has also said he would direct whomever he names attorney general to end lawsuits against the Trump administration, including a case aimed at stopping the president’s order ending birthright citizenship for people whose parents were in the country illegally.

Murphy, who became the first Democrat to be reelected in more than four decades in 2021, is barred from running again by term limits and hasn’t endorsed a successor in the primary.

Both parties will look to build their general election campaigns on widespread voter frustration. For Democrats, that means focusing on the parts of Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda that are unpopular. Republicans, meanwhile, are casting blame for economic hardships on Democrats who’ve run state government for the last eight years.

New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in Senate and presidential contests for decades. But the odd-year races for governor have tended to swing back and forth, and each of the last three GOP governors has won a second term.

Democrats have the largest share of registered voters in the state, followed closely by independent voters and then Republicans, who have roughly 800,000 fewer registrations than the Democratic Party. But the GOP has made gains in recent years, shaving the Democrats’ lead of more than 1 million more registrations to the current level.

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