New Jersey Representative and Gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) appeared on The Breakfast Club—a popular radio show hosted by Lenard Larry McKelvey, better known as Charlamagne tha God and RaaShaun Casey, professionally known as DJ Envy.
The show covers a variety of topics including pop culture, dating and politics—where the hosts tend to lean on the liberal side of the aisle. The Breakfast Club—which is based out of NYC—airs in over 90 radio markets across the entire U.S.
Sherrill’s segment covered an array of issues related to her Governor run including her time in the U.S. Navy, her Congressional voting history, black maternal health and generational wealth.
Referencing her Naval service, Sherrill stated: “This is my life’s work. Serving people is what I love to do and care deeply about. And I think I’m pretty good at it and can really effect change in a powerful way. That’s why I’m running for Governor.”
Around the 37-minute mark, Charlamagne seemed to have caught Sherrill off guard when he asked her about a recent ad ran by fellow Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark.
“I saw an ad that Mayor Baraka ran about you,” said Charlamagne. “It said you took 30-thousand dollars from Elon Musk’s campaign fund and that you made millions off the stock market, tripling your net worth while you were in Congress and you were fined for unreported trades.”
Sherrill was quick to respond. “So, I’ve never taken money from Elon Musk,” she said.
“I thought you took it and donated it to charity?” Charlamagne shot back.
“People from SpaceX, which is one of his companies—individuals from SpaceX donated to my campaign and, yes, I donated that in kind to a food bank because I wanted people to know where I stood on it,” she said. “And I have since offered legislation to have Elon Musk drug tested and to get him out of ‘DOGE-ing’ everything,” she continued.
It is reported that Sherrill did accept $10-thousand from the SpaceX PAC.
“I also don’t trade individual stocks,” she asserted. “It’s been widely reported… we don’t trade individual stocks. I don’t think anybody in Congress should quite frankly.”
Charlamagne was quick to bring up a Newsmax report from earlier this month which claimed that Sherrill had made upwards of $7-million off of the stock market since joining Congress. Newsmax is a hyper-conservative outlet, which has had to pay multiple fines related to misinformation over the years, including settling a $40-million defamation lawsuit related to on-air lies about the 2020 election.
Sherrill was quick to point this out before responding.
“I’m not sure what they’re talking about,” she said. “I would guess that the root of that would be because some of my husband’s payments from his company have been in stocks, which are immediately and automatically sold.” She was adamant that there has been no individual stock trading on her part. “It’s not as if I go sit on the House Armed Services Committee and suddenly I’m trading Boeing [stocks] or something.”
Charlamagne asked her again if she made $7-million off of trading during her Congressional tenure to which she responded that she would have to go back and look at the report to see what they’re referring to. “I don’t believe I did,” she said.
Sherrill took the opportunity to take the conversation in a different direction—discussing the importance of offering economic opportunity to all New Jersey residents. “We’ve been really lucky,” she said. “I deeply feel like this country has provided an incredible amount of opportunity to us and that’s why I think–I feel–a responsibility to pay that forward.”
But Charlamagne brought the dialogue back to stocks, offering Sherrill an opportunity to set the record straight once more. “I want to be clear. Because I agree with what you’re saying,” he said. “I want to be clear because this ad is running and I’m sure you’ll be asked about this a million times so if you get an opportunity to clear it up, I think you should take it now… it says ‘she made millions on the stock market, tripling her net worth while in congress, then was fined for unreported trades.’ True or false?”
“I think we made money from my husband’s job. He gets paid in stocks. They’re automatically sold,” she stated. “ We don’t make any individual money stock trading. We’re out of all individual stocks, because I want people to know that I’m not somehow gaining information and enriching myself because of my work in Congress.”
She then cleared up the air explaining that through an audit at the end of 2024, she found a stock trade that had been automatically sold. She self-reported the trade and paid a fine.
“I think that’s what that’s alluding to,” she said. “I think I’m one of the most transparent members… I don’t want anyone to think I owe anything to anyone except for the people I serve.”
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
