On November 2, the 2021 New Jersey gubernatorial election commenced with candidates Philip Murphy and Jack Ciattarelli. Contradicting the majority of people’s pre-existing predictions, it was a rather close election, in which the winner won the race only through a narrow margin.

Representing the Democratic Party, Philip Murphy decided to run for re-election this year after his term as the 56th governor of New Jersey in 2018. In this particular election, Murphy partnered again with Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver to campaign for a higher minimum wage, stronger criminal justice bills and reforms, and a project for fully clean energy by 2050, therefore contributing to a “stronger and fairer” state. With these ideas and plans for New Jersey in addition to his methods in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, many voters continued to support Murphy.

On the other side of the election was Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli. As a former member of the New Jersey General Assembly and a current American politician and businessman, Ciattarelli sought to utilize his previously acquired skills and experience to run for the position of New Jersey governor. In his campaign, Ciattarelli maintained that he would implement tax cuts, provide more funds and aid to schools in suburban areas, and eradicate mask and vaccine mandates in light of the current COVID-19 circumstances.

After numerous fluctuations in votes, Murphy was officially declared as the winner of the election and the governor of New Jersey with 1,288,524 votes compared to Ciattarelli’s close 1,220,928 votes. With this declaration, many members of the population were quite astonished because he was the first Democratic governor to be reelected in office since 1977. He made sure to express this great achievement in his victory speech at the Grand Arcade in Asbury Park.

Currently, despite the fact that voting counts have terminated, Ciattarelli has yet to concede the race to Murphy and is considering asking for a recount due to the narrow margin of votes between the two candidates. As of right now, no formal decision of a recount has been made yet.