[direwolf]

Dems get a win in New Jersey...barely.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/polit...lts/index.html

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has become the first Democratic governor in more than four decades to win reelection in the Garden State, CNN projects Wednesday, narrowly surviving a closer-than-expected race that dragged well past Election Day.

Murphy's victory over Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, albeit slim, defied the state's trend of voting in the party out of the White House in its off-year gubernatorial contests. Virginia -- the only other with odd-year gubernatorial elections -- held to that historical pattern on Tuesday, electing Republican Glenn Youngkin in a resounding blow to Democrats who had made recent gains in the state.

But like Virginia, the results in New Jersey -- another state that President Joe Biden carried by double digits in 2020 -- are raising alarms for Democrats who will be fighting to hold onto the suburbs in next year's midterm elections.

Murphy was saved, in the end, by the overwhelming advantage registered Democrats enjoy over registered Republicans -- more than a million in New Jersey, though voters there have shown a willingness to support moderate GOP candidates, like two-term former Govs. Christie Todd Whitman and, before Murphy's 2017 election, Chris Christie.