RARITAN, NJ – For the first time since 1977, a Democrat governor has won his bid for re-election. Democrat Governor Phil Murphy has officially defeated his Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli. At 1 P.M. on Friday, Ciattarelli is expected to hold a concession speech in his hometown of Raritan.
Ciattarelli leaves the contest as a two-time election loser, losing the GOP gubernatorial primary race against former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno in 2017.
Despite the New Jersey GOP making gains at the state legislative level this year, Ciattarelli’s defeat represents the party’s fifth major election defeat.
In 2020, the state lost all but one congressional seat, not counting CD-2 where former Democrat Jeff Van Drew switched parties prior to the election.
In 2017, the party lost a major contest to Phil Murphy on the heels of the unpopular final months of the Christie administration. Christie’s negative ratings were too much for Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno to overcome. She was never able to step out of the former governor’s shadow.
The party lost two U.S. Senate races that allowed for the re-election of Cory Booker and Bob Menendez.
Ciattarelli’s campaign was plagued by off-messaging, a failure to turn the spotlight on Phil Murphy and a failure by Ciattarelli to rally the conservative base.
Instead, Ciattarelli’s campaign spent most of its time and money defending the candidate and telling voters that he was not Phil Murphy. Countless polls along the way found that the average voter in New Jersey had no idea who Jack Ciattarelli was and that falls on the back of the candidate and his campaign team.
Jack was never quite able to dig in and fight the battle that was neeed against Murphy, Democrats, and the progressive woke agenda that plagues the Garden State. In fact, Ciattarelli’s campaign was more ruthless and vicious against his Republican primary opponents Hirsh Singh and Phil Rizzo than it was against Phil Murphy.
New Jersey Republicans made strides this year at the local level despite Ciattarelli’s defeat, overturning multiple municipal bodies, county boards and gaining seats in both the state assembly and senate. The party has a long way to go before it can have a seat at the table in Trenton. Still holding the minority in both state chambers, it will continue to be difficult for state Republicans to get their bills passed through to the governor’s desk.
And those that make it to Murphy’s desk risk never being signed.
There’s a lot of work for Republicans to begin making worthwhile plays to regain seats in Congress lost to the Democrats in 2020 and at this point, it’s not clear where Jack Ciattarelli will factor into that plan.
Ciattarelli’s campaign has indicated that it has no intention of requesting a ballot recount or challenging the results at this time.