New Jersey will elect a new governor on Tuesday - here come the results
- New Jersey voters will elect a new governor on Tuesday in a race to replace the state's deeply unpopular outgoing Republican governor, Chris Christie.
- Democrat Phil Murphy, a former bank executive and ambassador to Germany, is expected to beat Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who. Murphy has tied to Christie's failings.
New Jersey voters will elect a new governor on Tuesday, replacing Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who is now the least popular governor in the state's history.
Democrat Phil Murphy, a former Wall Street banker and ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama, is leading the race against New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, a Republican. Murphy, who has never before held elected office, has outraised Guadagno, who has attempted to distance herself from Christie, whose approval rating is consistently in the teens.
The race has turned bitter in the final days of the campaign, with the candidates hardening their dramatically different positions on policy issues ranging from the minimum wage to gun control.
Guadagno has heavily focused on her support for decreasing property taxes, which are higher in the state than anywhere else in the country. Murphy is opposed to decreasing the taxes, but supports fully funding public schools, which, he argues, would decrease property taxes. He also wants to close corporate tax loopholes.
Murphy has focused much of his campaign on tying Guadagno to the failures of the Christie administration, which he blames for a "broken economy" as a result of the governor and his deputy's "failed leadership."
Polling experts are predicting dismal turnout on Tuesday. A Monmouth University Poll estimated that just 39% of registered New Jersey voters will cast their ballots.
"I think we're going to see record-low turnout Tuesday," Ashley Koning, a Rutgers polling expert, told NJ.com on Tuesday. "There is an abysmal outlook on the state right now, and voters seem to think it's not going to get better with an election."
Follow the latest numbers below: