With many races too close to call, Republicans seem to be outperforming expectations

The full implications of today’s – now yesterday’s – election still aren’t fully clear, but one thing that does seem certain is that Republicans had a better night than was expected.

In the two legislative districts that were considered the state’s most competitive, the 2nd and the 8th, Republicans are nearing a clean sweep. They’ve won all three seats in the 2nd district and both Assembly seats in the 8th, and are currently leading in the 8th district’s Senate seat.

Several seats that were expected to favor Democrats, meanwhile, are looking shaky. The 11th district in particular, where all three Democratic incumbents currently trail their Republican challengers, is a foreboding sign.

And the biggest prize of all, the governorship, remains uncalled, with Gov. Phil Murphy and Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli neck-and-neck throughout the entire night. Ciattarelli is currently getting a huge chunk of votes from his base – more than 70,000 votes in Ocean County alone – while Murphy is struggling to get matching numbers from his base in urban North Jersey.

By now, it’s clear the result of the gubernatorial race won’t be known tonight.

Of course, all of these results could be greatly changed once every vote is counted; a number of Election Day votes are still outstanding, as are absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day that haven’t yet arrived for counting. If the 2020 elections taught the country anything, it’s that election results can look very different at different points in the counting process.

But Democrats hoping for a clear mandate or landslide will be disappointed no matter how those late-counted votes break.