The slim victory, which ended Democrats’ 44-year re-election losing streak in the state, was far tighter than polls and Democratic strategists predicted.
Philip D. Murphy was re-elected governor of New Jersey by a slimmer than expected margin, becoming the first Democrat in more than four decades to win a second term in the state. But his narrow victory showed just how divided the state was over his tough policies to control the spread of the coronavirus and as his liberal agenda on taxation, climate change and racial equity. Mr. Murphy held a slight lead over his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli, with some votes left to be tallied, according to The Associated Press, which called the race on Wednesday after a protracted count. Most of the outstanding votes were in heavily Democratic areas of the state. Mr. Murphy,64, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive and ambassador to Germany, campaigned largely on his first-term record and his unabashedly liberal approach to governing a state where there are nearly 1.1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. Mr. Murphy’s narrow victory in New Jersey — and a key loss in the Virginia governor’s race — were likely to be interpreted as ominous signs for Democrats hoping to move President Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda across the finish line and retain a slim majority in Congress during next year’s midterm elections. In Virginia, the Republican, Glenn Youngkin, defeated his Democratic challenger for governor, Terry McAuliffe, who was trying to retake the office he vacated four years ago. In New Jersey, where voters had not re-elected a Democratic governor since 1977, it was not clear what Mr. Murphy’s final margin of victory would be once counting was complete. But it was certain to be less than recent polls had suggested, and far less than other Democratic victories in the state in recent years. Early Wednesday morning, both candidates took the stages at their election-night parties to tell supporters that the results of the contest would not be clear until all provisional and vote-by-mail ballots were counted. “We’re all sorry that tonight could not yet be the celebration that we wanted it to be,” said Mr. Murphy, surrounded by his family in Asbury Park’s Convention Hall. “But as I said: When every vote is counted — and every vote will be counted — we hope to have a celebration again.” Mr. Ciattarelli,59, said much the same thing, but appeared far more relaxed after significantly outperforming every public opinion poll conducted during the campaign in a state Mr. Biden won by 16 points. “We have sent a message to the entire country,” Mr. Ciattarelli told supporters gathered in Bridgewater. “This is what I love about this state, if you study its history: Every single time it’s gone too far off-track, the people of this state have pushed, pulled and prodded it right back to where it needs to be.” In New Jersey, the defining issue of the campaign was the pandemic, which has killed about 28,000 residents, hobbled much of the region’s economy and disrupted the education of 1.3 million public school students. Mr. Murphy was one of the last governors to repeal an indoor mask mandate and among the first to require teachers to be vaccinated or submit to regular testing.
