Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took the stage Wednesday evening claiming victory after several news outlets declared him the projected winner in the gubernatorial race.
“We just had the most New Jersey experience,” Murphy joked with the crowd in his victory speech. “I was on my way someplace, and it took us longer to get there than we planned. As a matter of fact, some might say it took 44 years to get here.”
Murphy also expressed how “humbled” he was “to be the first Democratic governor reelected” in the state of New Jersey since 1977.
BIDEN’S UNPOPULARITY MAY UNDERCUT NEW JERSEY GOV. PHIL MURPHY’S REELECTION PLANS
Touting the accomplishments of his administration, Murphy highlighted education, childcare, healthcare, the expansion of voter rights, and his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Wednesday morning, the New Jersey gubernatorial race was still too close to call. Murphy and his Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli had been neck and neck in a heated race all throughout the night.
But the Associated Press called the race in Murphy’s favor at around 6:26 p.m. with around 90% of the votes in. Other outlets followed suit and started listing him as the projected winner. Murphy had 50.02% support with 1,224,953 votes while Ciattarelli had 49% with 1,195,570 votes with 90% of precincts reporting, the Associated Press’s live tracker said as of 11:05 p.m.
Ciattarelli’s campaign blasted the media for being “irresponsible” and calling the election too early. New Jersey has no automatic recall law, but a candidate can ask a judge for one within 17 days of Election Day.
“With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent 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,” tweeted Stami Williams, the communications director for Ciattarelli, in response to the Associated Press calling the race.
The Republican’s team has not issued another statement since.
Hours later, during his speech, Murphy was already looking to the future.
“If you want to be governor of all of New Jersey, you must listen to all of New Jersey. And, New Jersey, I hear you,” Murphy said. “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.”
LIVE: Gov. Phil Murphy delivers victory speech after winning reelectionhttps://t.co/QTMmdf1vKE
— NJ Spotlight News (@NJSpotlightNews) November 4, 2021
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Prior to the election, the incumbent governor had been projected to win reelection, even as Ciattarelli had closed the gap in polling in recent weeks.
Democrats were hoping to avoid a second governor’s race loss in the off-year election after Terry McAuliffe was defeated by his GOP rival, Glenn Youngkin, in the Virginia gubernatorial contest .
