Jack Ciattarelli to Concede Gubernatorial Race
Republican Jack Ciattarelli will concede the New Jersey Governor’s race to incumbent Phil Murphy at a news conference today. The presser is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Raritan.
The gubernatorial race in New Jersey was much tighter than pollsters were predicting, with some predicting that Murphy would win by double-digits. Instead the race was extremely close, with Ciattarelli holding a slight edge deep into election night. By the next day, Murphy had jumped in front as ballots were being counted.
Murphy’s campaign called on Ciattarelli to concede Monday, saying the numbers show he can’t win. The governor argued it was “dangerous” for Ciattarelli not to acknowledge he lost, saying “it is not what America is about.”
Ciattarelli’s campaign responded Monday that it was not “alleging fraud or malfeasance” but simply waiting for all votes to be counted.
Murphy had an edge of 74,000 votes, or a margin of 2.9 percent with 100 percent of the vote counted.
Ciattarelli, a long time Somerset County politician, served in the state General Assembly from 2011-18. This was his second run at the governors seat.
As for Murphy, he became the first Democrat to win re-election as governor in the state since Brendan Byrne did it in 1977.
