New Jersey Governor An NBC News projection showed that Phil Murphy beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli to win his bid for reelection.

This call came just after Election Day had passed and the vote count was still not complete.

Murphy was a Democrat and had led Ciattarelli (a businessman) in polls leading up to Election Day.

Murphy’s lead was noticeably smaller since May, when Murphy (64 years old) became a former president Goldman SachsExecutive was polled 26 percent higher than Ciattarelli.

The Garden State’s Democratic incumbent governor has not been reelected since Brendan Byrne in 1977.

Ciattarelli, who had been pounding away at Murphy over raising taxes during Murphy’s tenure in recent weeks, ran ads in which Murphy said in 2019 “If you’re a one-issue voter and tax rate is your issue, we’re probably not your state.”

New Jersey was the only state to hold gubernatorial races this year. In VirginiaRepublican Glenn Youngkin won against Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe was a former governor in the same state.

Both states’ races were being closely watched to see if their outcomes reflect the political fortunes of President Joe Biden — a Democrat who recently has seen his public approval ratings fall — and to see if they foretell the fate of Democrats next year as they try to maintain control of both chambers of Congress.

New Jersey Democrats have a 1,000,000 voter advantage over Republicans. The state was won by all Democratic presidential candidates in the last three decades.

However, the state has an innate contrarian streak. having elected as governor the candidate of the party opposite that of the party holding the White House in every race since 1985.

Murphy knew this well.

We win when our team is there. It’s a coin toss, because our team didn’t turn up. “We cannot afford a coin-toss,” said the Democrat. said at a voter rally Monday night in South Orange.

Prior to that, Murphy’s bid for reelection had been supported by visits to the state from a variety of prominent national Democrats including former President Barack Obama and first lady Jill Biden as well as Douglas Emhoff (husband of Vice President Kamala Harris).

Ciattarelli (59) was previously a member the New Jersey General Assembly representing the 16th District from 2011-2018. He failed to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2017. Instead, he lost to Kim Guadagno. Murphy was soundly defeated.

Ciattarelli is a licensed public accountant and founded a company for medical publishing.