Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show on Wednesday:

It was supposed to be a close race.

By 9:23 p.m. Tuesday night it was clear it was going to be a blowout.

The Associated Press declared Democrat Mikie Sherrill the winner in New Jersey's critical election for governor before 9:30 p.m. on her way to a landslide victory that was as much about Donald Trump as it was about Sherrill and perennial statewide loser Jack Ciattarelli.

Ciattarelli, endorsed by Trump, needed big turnout by Republicans and scores of unaffiliated voters to vote for him to have a path to victory.

He didn't get either one.

The GOP nominee underperformed is every New Jersey county compared to his close run against Phil Murphy four years ago.

Republicans failed to get behind early voting efforts allowing Democrats to run up the score and go into Election Day with a better than 300,000 vote advantage.

In counties critical to a GOP victory like Ocean, Monmouth and Morris, Ciattarelli needed to win big. He did not.

Women and independent voters, who I long said would decide this race, broke in large numbers for Sherrill.

It was a humiliating loss for Ciattarelli who has been running for governor for a decade. He came as close as 3% four years ago.

The third time was not the charm.

Ciattarelli called Mikie Sherril to congratulate her and then faced his disappointed supporters in a speech that made no mention of his future.

⬛ ‘We said no to Trump’: Sherrill’s victory fires up Dems

🗳️ Breaking: U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill wins New Jersey governor’s race, defeating Trump-endorsed Jack Ciattarelli in a high-stakes contest.
💥 Election drama: Bomb threats disrupted polling in seven NJ counties before authorities deemed them hoaxes.
👩‍✈️ Historic victory: Navy veteran Sherrill becomes the state’s second female governor and a new face of Democratic centrism.

TRENTON — U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill on Tuesday was elected governor of New Jersey, shoring up Democratic control of a state that has been reliably blue in presidential and Senate contests but had shown signs of shifting rightward in recent years.

Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and four-term member of Congress, defeated Jack Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, and quickly cast her victory late Tuesday as a referendum on the Republican president and some of his policies from health care to immigration and the economy.

“We here in New Jersey are bound to fight for a different future for our children,” Sherrill told her supporters gathered to celebrate her victory. “We see how clearly important liberty is. We know that no one in our great state is safe when our neighbors are targeted, ignoring the law and the Constitution.”

Ciattarelli called Sherrill to congratulate her on the results and said he “gave her my very best wishes in hopefully solving New Jersey.”

“It is my hope that Mikie Sherrill has heard us in terms of what we need to do to make New Jersey that place where everybody can once again feel that they can achieve their American dream,” Ciattarelli said.

⬛ NJ election results: Live vote totals by county

New Jersey voters cast ballots Tuesday in one of the nation's only two gubernatorial races this year. The expected-to-close contest between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli ended up being a landslide victory for Democrats.

The Associated Press called the race for Sherrill just before 9:30, when she was leading with 58% of the vote.

Click HERE to see how each county voted.

⬛ Tuesday’s races were a quiet rebuke of Trump for many voters, AP Voter Poll finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot in Tuesday’s elections, but many voters in key races made their choice in opposition to him or considered him to be irrelevant, according to the AP Voter Poll.

It was hardly an endorsement of his nearly 10 months back in the White House.

That theme played out in the governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, the mayoral contest in New York City and a state proposition to redraw congressional districts in California.

The AP Voter Poll, which surveyed more than 17,000 voters in those places, found that most voters disapproved of Trump’s performance as president, and many thought his aggressive approach to immigration had “gone too far.”

Photos of the first general election since Trump’s return

Democrats won high-profile races in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City Tuesday as millions of voters cast ballots in U.S. state and local elections. Abigail Spanberger was elected Virginia governor, Mikie Sherrill won the New Jersey gubernatorial contest and Zohran Mamdani triumphed in the New York City mayor’s race.

⬛ Legislative races too close to call in multiple districts

Democrats will retain control of the New Jersey State Assembly. That much is certain this morning.

How many seats they will gain and how many Republicans will lose remains a question.

Multiple races are too close to call.

Democrats came into Election Day with a commanding 52-28 majority in the lower house and have controlled the legislature for nearly a quarter century.

Unofficial vote totals have Democrats winning 49 seats to 19 for the Republicans. The remaining races are still too close to call.

⬛ Juvenile charged in Election Day bomb scare

🚨Juvenile charged after bomb threat targets NJ polling place on Election Day
🚨K-9 units searched North Brunswick school; no explosives were found
🚨 Officials vow swift justice as threats disrupt voting across seven counties

NORTH BRUNSWICK — A juvenile was charged in one of the bomb threats made against a New Jersey polling place on Election Day morning.

Bomb threats targeted at least seven polling locations in Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean and Passaic counties as voting got underway Tuesday morning, according to state Attorney General Matt Platkin.

The bogus threats prompted national attention, as New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states with contests for governor. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani even commented on the issue by blaming President Trump's rhetoric.

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said a North Brunswick juvenile was charged with making the threat. Investigators recovered the electronic devices used to make the threat.

Ciccone did not disclose the charges or whether the juvenile was part of an organized effort. She also did not say how old the suspect is.

Start your day with up-to-the-minute news, traffic and weather for the Garden State.

The New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show airs from 6 - 10 a.m. on New Jersey 101.5.

Join the conversation by calling 1-800-283-1015 or download the NJ101.5 app.

You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com

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