When a candidate asks for your vote, she’s asking you to trust her with power, responsibility and the messy, consequential work of governing. Trust is not a slogan. It is a ledger built on lifetime entries — small truths added one by one until a person’s character can be read in the balance. Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill is running for governor of New Jersey and wants us to write a blank check. The resurfacing of the Naval Academy cheating scandal and the testimony of a classmate who says she “lied, or … obscured the facts” ought to close that checkbook for anyone who still values honesty as a prerequisite for public office.

Make no mistake: this isn’t a quaint story about youthful foibles or a hazy memory of college drama. The Naval Academy is a crucible for leaders whose decisions can mean life and death. The honor code there is not an academic courtesy; it’s the moral foundation that bonds sailors and Marines and allows commanders to issue orders that will be followed without hesitation. When someone who benefited from that trust now stands in front of voters asking to be trusted again, every wrinkle in their account becomes a relevancy test. A classmate’s claim that Sherrill’s punishment — being barred from walking with her class — suggests she misled investigators is explosive for a........

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