Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is officially joining the crowded race for governor, announcing her campaign bid in a video early this morning where the former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor pledged to fix New Jersey's economy and make the state more affordable.

She spent the last six years representing the 11th Congressional District, coming to office as part of the blue wave after Donald Trump's first presidency, and she just won reelection earlier this month.

Now she joins her colleague, Congressman Josh Gottheimer, and a field of other formidable candidates in what will likely be a long runway to the election.

Senior political correspondent David Kruse reports.

I'm Mikie Sherrill.

As a graduate of the U.S.

Naval Academy and a former Navy helicopter aircraft commander, here's something I learned early on.

No candidate on either side of this race is going to be able to rock a pilot's jumpsuit or bomber jacket, like Mikie Sherrill.

The congresswoman has the Top Gun thing down.

The other stuff, like explaining why she's running for governor just two weeks after getting reelected to Congress.

She's still working on, you know, my focus has always been on the people of new Jersey and how I can best advocate deliver for them.

And that's why I chose to run for Congress right now, to make sure that I'm relentlessly delivering for people.

And I think my record shows that that's been very effective.

Critics, including primary rival Jersey City Mayor Steve Phillip, have called out Sherrill and Congressman Josh Gottheimer, who announced his candidacy on Friday for office shopping.

I mean, think about how crazy it is that you are declaring for another office before you are sworn in to the office that you just told them you want to run for in new Jersey?

We don't whine, we work.

But ambition ain't against the law.

And Cheryl says it's all in the name of serving the state.

Her message an upbeat, albeit very general theme about coming together for Jersey.

All right, so we saw your ad today.

Say you want to do big things.

Like what?

So I want to do I want to do the biggest thing.

And that is make life more affordable for people in new Jersey.

Create that ladder to success.

I you know, as we say, we all know the opportunity new Jersey affords.

Now we just need to make sure that people can afford new Jersey.

Affordability is all the rage again this year, as campaign issues go.

Cheryl's solutions include repurposing commercial buildings and brownfields to increase affordable housing stocks and incentivizing small grocers to open up in food deserts in order to bring down costs.

She's against congestion pricing and blames a lot of NJ transit problems on Amtrak, which is right about where her rivals are.

She's seen as a moderate compared to left leaning candidates like Fulop, Newark Mayor Rasp Baraka and Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller.

But that may not matter as much in a field of six, where even in a post party line, world endorsements from county machines still mean something.

Mighty Cheryl has the initial support of political leaders in Essex, Morris, Passaic and, Middlesex.

And those are a very formidable combination of counties, because it's one out of every three votes that Phil Murphy got when he was running in his first primary for governor.

So, it's a really good head start for her.

Most observers agree that Cheryl is likely the final entrant into this field.

Barring a last minute big budget surprise.

A recent poll found that few new Jersey voters knew any of the candidates very well, which no candidate wants to hear, but is also an opportunity for some candidates, like Cheryl, the only woman in the race to write their own narratives before it's done for them.

I'm David Cruz, NJ Spotlight News.