The bitter race for New Jersey governor didn’t end on Election Day.
In a shocker, the contest, once seen as a shoo-in for Gov. Phil Murphy, remained too close to call Wednesday. Results this morning show the Democratic governor and Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli, less than 1 percentage point apart, teetering on a razor thin margin in a race that surprised many and burst into the national spotlight.
It is the first time New Jersey woke up the day after Election Day not knowing who their next governor would be since 1981, when it took nearly a month to determine that Republican Tom Kean had defeated Democrat Jim Florio by just 1,797 votes.
Both campaigns cleared out of their Election Night parties early Wednesday without declaring victory or conceding, and it’s possible a winner may not be decided today.
As of 7:03 a.m. Wednesday, with 98% of the precincts in, Ciattarelli was leading Murphy by about 1,200 votes, according to totals from the Associated Press. That amounted to 49.7% for Ciattarelli and 49.6% for Murphy.
But thousands of votes — especially from Democratic-leaning areas — have yet to be counted. And it remains unclear how many vote-by-mail or provisional ballots still must be tallied.