TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy today declared his election win against Jack Cittarelli wasn’t even a close race and called upon his opponent to concede the election and restore faith in New Jersey’s election process.
Ciattarelli who earlier said he will wait until all ‘legal’ votes are counted and some in Republican circles have called for recounts and contesting the election.
“Overcoming historical trends and a challenging national environment, Governor Phil Murphy has won re-election against Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli. The race has been called by the Associated Press, NBC Decision Desk, CNN, Dave Wasserman of Cook Political Report, and Steve Kornacki, among other well-respected outlets and election analysts. This was not a close race – it just seemed that way given the delayed reporting of votes on Tuesday night,” Murphy said.
As of Sunday night, Murphy led Ciattarelli by 65,404 votes, or a 2.59% margin. That margin grows each day as the final mail-in and provisional ballots are counted.
“Governor Murphy’s percentage margin is larger than Glenn Youngkin’s in Virginia (2.20%), which the Republican Governors Association publicly described as “healthy.” While Terry McAuliffe offered his concession days ago, Assemblyman Ciattarelli is refusing to concede and face reality. By failing to publicly acknowledge that he has lost the race, Assemblyman Ciattarelli is misleading his supporters into thinking he has a chance to prevail. But he does not,” Murphy campaign spokesman Jerrell Harvey said today.
New Jersey election officials at this point have confirmed there aren’t enough ballots left to be counted to bridge the 65,000 vote gap for Ciattarelli.
The Murphy campaign’s historic investment in its vote-by-mail program has paid off, with the Governor’s margin among vote-by-mail ballots exceeding his overall margins in every county,” Harvey said.
“The race is over. Assemblyman Ciattarelli is mathematically eliminated, and he must accept the results and concede the race. His continuing failure to do so is an assault on the integrity of our elections,” Murphy said.
Ciattarelli’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the matter when Shore News Network was contacted by the Murphy campaign Sunday evening.