MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Democrats win New Jersey, but not as easily as polls had forecast

Murphy became the first Democrat to win a second term as governor since Brendan Byrne in 1977

The Democratic Governor of New Jersey has been reelected, albeit by a narrow margin, which came as a relief for President Joseph Biden given a defeat in the state of Virginia earlier this week.

With 90% of the votes counted, Phil Murphy received 50.03% of the votes, against 49.22% for the Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli. In other words, there were less than 20,000 votes between the two contenders, despite pre-election polls giving Murphy an advantage of eight points, according to the New York Times. As recently as last week, a Stockton University poll of likely voters showed Murphy leading his challenger by 9 percentage points. A Monmouth University poll of registered voters published a day earlier showed Murphy up by 11 points. And no poll put him closer than 4 percentage points and the final RealClear Politics polling average showed the Democrat up by 7.8 percentage points.

Murphy became the first Democrat to win a second term as governor since Brendan Byrne in 1977. But the closeness of the result in a state President Biden won by 16 percentage points just 12 months ago maybe a bigger shock for Democrats than even Republican Glenn Youngkin’s come-from-behind win in the Virginia race.

“If you want to know what the future looks like, come to New Jersey,” Murphy told supporters in Asbury Park Wednesday. “If you want to understand where America is heading, look to New Jersey. And, if you want to be governor for all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey. And New Jersey, I hear you.”

“So tonight, I renew my promise to you, whether you voted for me or not, to work every single day of the next four years to keep moving us forward,” Murphy added. “Forward with renewed optimism to ensure greater opportunities for all 9.3 million who call this great state home.”

Ciattarelli was yet to concede defeat Wednesday night.

“With the candidates separated by a fraction of a per cent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,” communications director Stami Williams tweeted.

Thousands of mail-in and provisional ballots were still being counted Wednesday, and NJ.com reported that some counties had yet to report figures from the heavily Democratic early vote. Once those were tallied up, Murphy was likely to hold an insurmountable lead. Ciattarelli was in front for much of Tuesday night as results were reported, rolling up big margins in traditionally Republican territory.

The results ultimately pointed to a potentially painful year ahead for Democrats as they try to maintain thin majorities in Congress.

Just last week, Republicans slammed the governor after campaign staff revealed on hidden camera that he is concealing plans for broad vaccine mandates after the election.