Murphy's win still no match for Christie's re-election landslide

Gov.-elect Phil Murphy won Tuesday after campaigning on a platform that opposed Gov. Chris Christie's eights years in office.

But despite Christie's abysmal approval ratings lately, Murphy's electoral victory was no match for Christie's 2013 re-election landslide.

Murphy beat Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno with 1.15 million votes, 56 to 42 percent. Four years ago, Christie crushed Democrat Barbara Buono 60 to 38 percent, amassing almost 1.28 million votes.

Christie — riding the wave of his post-Superstorm Sandy bipartisan popularity, and with the help of his coziness with Democratic bosses — won all but two counties. Murphy won back most of those counties, but with fewer votes than Christie.

If Guadagno needs any consolation: She beat Buono's vote total by more than 68,000 ballots.

Here's a comparison of the results from the two years.

For a look at how Murphy and Guadagno performed this year, check out our county results map.