Part 2/10:
In 2021, the fight for New Jersey’s governorship was razor-thin, decided by just 84,000 votes in favor of incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy. Then, as now, the state was considered a Democratic stronghold, with Joe Biden winning by double digits just a year earlier, providing a typical backdrop of Democratic dominance.
However, the 2021 results revealed a critical fissure in the electorate: nearly 600,000 Republican voters stayed home—an abstention that might have clinched the election for Chedarelli had they turned out. This stark statistic underscores a vital lesson: the race was extremely winnable, and an energized Republican base could have tipped the scales.