November 12, 2021
The New Jersey governor's race is officially over, a week and a half after voters cast their ballots.
Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, a three-term former assemblyman, conceded to the incumbent Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday afternoon at a press conference in his hometown of Raritan, New Jersey.
"There does not appear to be a path to victory or basis for a recount," Ciattarelli said. "If you think I'd be standing here today conceding if I thought I won this election, you couldn't be more wrong."
Ciattarelli announced that he plans to run for governor again in four years and that he had called Murphy to congratulate him. He said he does not plan to run for the U.S. Senate, as he has no interest in leaving his beloved home state.
The governor's race was much tighter than political insiders expected it to be. Murphy was heavily favored until the final weeks of the election but ended up eking out a victory by about just 74,000 votes, or 2.9%.
This race was seen as a bellwether for the 2022 midterm elections, so the close outcome, along with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's loss in Virginia, has caused much hand-wringing in Democratic circles.
Murphy repeatedly pressured Ciattarelli to concede over the course of this past week. The challenger's campaign put out a press release on Monday stating that while they were unlikely to win the election outright, they wanted to wait until all the votes were counted to see if requesting a recount would make sense.
Although Ciattarelli was in no rush to concede, he never called into question the security or integrity of last week's vote, something many of his Republican counterparts have done when they've lost races in the post-Trump era.
Still, he stressed the need for election results to be reported promptly as way to allay concerns about fraud and proposed legislation to "standardize election reporting."
"We desperately need uniformity and strict reporting guidelines," he said.
The challenger utilized some standard Republican culture war talking points over the course of his campaign, particularly those related to lowering New Jersey's notoriously high taxes and COVID-19 restrictions at schools and businesses.
In other ways, Ciattarelli distanced himself from the GOP, like by not campaigning with national Republicans and supporting abortion rights.
In his concession speech, Ciattarelli stressed the need for New Jersey to find a "common sense center" on issues like taxes.
His announcement comes just one day after veteran Democratic State Senate President Steve Sweeney, who was one of the state's most powerful politicians, admitted defeat in his race against Republican Ed Durr, a truck driver with close ties to Trump.
Both races are seen as evidence of what Sweeney called a "red wave" in New Jersey.
"We leaned into down-ballot races, and the results were the greatest election night for Republicans in 30 years," he said, noting that the New Jersey GOP won eight targeted senate races, flipped six assembly seats and defeated two Democratic incumbents.
In Durr's South Jersey district, over 11,000 more voters turned up for him in 2021 than did for 2017 Republican challenger Fran Grenier, allowing him to beat Sweeney by about 3.4%. Meanwhile, the turnout for Sweeney declined 349 votes to 31,473.
Statewide, over 330,000 more voters turned out for Ciattarelli in 2021 than they did for the 2017 Republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno, while only about 100,000 more people voted for Murphy this time around than in 2017.
