PRINCETON, New Jersey – Governor Phil Murphy fended off the New Jersey governor election challenge by defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli on Wednesday, Nov 3, after the incumbent’s voting took an unexpected turn.
After four decades, Murphy, 64, is the one who won the re-election in the state even after the Republican voters outnumbered the enrolled democratic voters by almost one million in the highly populated region of the US state.
After being victorious in getting re-elected, Murphy addressed his supporters in a brief speech in a convention hall at Asbury Park, while the supporters were shouting, “Four more years!”.
He told the crowd, “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.”
The reports received from the Associated Press and New York Times cited that Murphy won the re-election by getting 50.03 percent extra votes as compared to Republican Ciattarelli, who got 49.22 percent votes overall, out of 90 percent counted.
No reports have been received from Ciattarelli after the defeat. However, his campaign representative, Sami Williams, got media attention as she posted a tweet criticizing the media outlets.
She wrote, “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.”
Democrat Murphy has presided over state affairs as he imposed new taxes on state’s millionaires, tough restrictions on firearms. He also introduced paid sick leaves and a rise in the minimum wage. The governor also protected his Covid related health measures to reduce the Covid cases, which became the point of dispute in the race.
Ciattarelli, 59, competing with Murphy and defeated by almost 10 points, manipulated Muphy’s aggressive precautions measures for covid protection for school children to get an edge over him.
Republican Ciattarelli also capitalized on the county’s high taxes while indicting the governor for staying out of touch with the electorates.
