BREAKING: AP calls New Jersey Governor race for incumbent Phil Murphy

64-year-old Democrat Phil Murphy won with 1,210,997 votes versus 59-year-old Republican Jack Ciattarelli’s 1,191,703 votes.

According to the New York Post, it’s the first time a Democrat governor has won re-election in the state since 1977. But the state had generally inched toward blue especially with the 2020 election cycle.

Besides the Virginia race for Governor, yesterday saw a race for that same position over in New Jersey. It was still a competitive race but it played out in a different way as the results were tabulated.

It was a race that was too close to call for most of Wednesday. The New York Times listed off issues like President Biden’s unpopularity and Murphy’s COVID emergency orders as factors that evened the playing field against his Republican opponent.

It was late last month that Project Veritas published undercover footage of people from Murphy’s campaign admitting that the Governor was waiting until after the election to impose vaccine mandates.

Ciattarelli’s background was in the New Jersey General Assembly for the 16th district from 2011 to 2018.

A mistake by a poll worker in Essex County earlier today shut down dozens of counting machines. It was one of many causes for delay in the results.

CNN said Jack Ciattarelli followed a similar playbook to Youngkin in keeping Trump at "arm's length" and focusing on issues when squaring off against Murphy.

Despite the close vote tallies that only differed in the thousands at times, many pollsters forecasted that Murphy would end up pulling ahead of Ciattarelli based on the remaining areas that were yet to be counted.

The state of New Jersey doesn’t have an automatic recount law if the margins were slim enough. However, both of the candidates have 17 days from Election Day to file suit for particular counties they’d like a recount in.

It’s not all sunny for New Jersey Democrats, though. Democrat Steve Sweeney, who spent upwards of one million for his State Senate seat’s re-election, is facing fierce competition against a Republican truck driver who spent a mere $153 for his campaign.