The New Jersey governor’s race between Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat running for a second term and His Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli was shockingly close in early Wednesday morning.
Murphy spoke just before 12:30 a.m. Ciattarelli held a lead of 50.1% to the governor’s 49.2.% with 80% of the vote in.
“When every vote is counted, and every vote will be counted, we hope to have a celebration,” Murphy said.
Minutes later, Ciattarelli spoke to supporters.
“Sometime real soon when it’s clear we have a quantifiable victory, we will begin to transform New Jersey and make this state a place everyone feels confident they can live, work, retire, start a business and raise a family,” he said as the supporters chanted, “Jack, Jack, Jack.”
Murphy hoped to become the first Democrat in more than four decades to be reelected to the Garden State’s top office on Tuesday.
TMurphy maintained a double digit lead throughout the campaign. However, an Emerson College pollIn mid-October, a Rutgers/Eagleton poll showed that his lead had fallen to just 6 points. Murphy held a lead of 8 points in Monday’s Rutgers/Eagleton Poll. The race was not competitive in major polls.
The race attracted some national firepower. President Joe BidenFormer President Barack Obama separately stumped for Murphy, who served as Obama’s U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013. Chairwoman of Republican National Committee Ronna McDanielTo campaign with Ciattarelli, he came to the state.
Former governor Brendan Byrne was the last Democrat to be elected to a second term as New Jersey’s governor in 1977. Since that time, the past three two-term New Jersey governors—Chris Christie, Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Kean—have all been Republicans.
New Jersey reportedlyThere are 1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans.
This was the first election after Murphy signed a bill that allowed early in-person voting for up to nine days prior to Election Day. Weekend numbers from The Rebovich Institute for New Jersey PoliticsRider University reported that 170,000 people had voted in person early Saturday morning and that 451,000 people had voted via mail Friday afternoon. CBS News reported. 59% of these votes were cast by Democrats.
The Murphy campaign has repeatedly compared the Republican candidate with former President Donald Trump. Ciattarelli was very focused on state issues, and vowed to cut state income taxes and property taxes.
Despite having a consistent record of success, one of the highest COVID-19 death ratesMurphy is the American Murphy said he “led New Jersey from being one of the hardest-hit states by COVID-19 to a national model in pandemic response.”
Ciattarelli criticized Murphy’s COVID-19 response, saying it harmed small businesses and students with the closures. Murphy’s high rate of incarceration was also criticized by Ciattarelli. nursing home deathsThis was a result of an order that COVID-19 positive patients should be placed in nursing homes.
Both candidates were pro-abortion. Murphy campaigned for the passage of a law that would enshrine abortion rights in state law, in case Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court. Ciattarelli stated that he wants abortion to be legal, but banned after 20 weeks of gestation.
Since 1947, the New Jersey Constitution has included an off-year election for governor. This was done to ensure that the Constitution is not influenced by national campaigns. Then-Gov. Alfred Driscoll, a Republican said: “The importance of a gubernatorial election merits an election that will not be overshadowed by a national contest for the presidency. The problems confronting the state are frequently distinct from those confronting the nation.”
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