UPDATE — 11 p.m. — WHAT'S NEXT?: Murphy is seeking to become the first Democrat to win re-election in New Jersey since Gov. Brendan Byrne in 1977. New Jersey 101.5 Statehouse Bureau Chief Michael Symons assesses the state of the race.

UPDATE — 10 p.m. — CIATTARELLI WINS: Election watchers have called the New Jersey Republican gubernatorial primary for former Somerset County Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who will go on to face Gov. Phil Murphy in November.


UPDATE — 9:20 p.m. — MAKING A CALL: The election analysts at Decision Desk HQ have called the race for Ciattarelli. Although many more votes need to be counted, Ciattarelli is pulling ahead while Phil Rizzo and Hirsh Singh, who battled for votes of Trump supporters, are splitting the rest.


UPDATE — 9:00 p.m. — CIATTARELLI LEADING: With early returns, and very few polling places counted, Jack Ciattarelli was leading the four-way Republican race with about 48% of the vote so far while his closest two competitors were splitting most the remaining votes.


UPDATE — 8:10 p.m. — MURPHY WINS: Gov. Phil Murphy has won the Democratic primary — not surprise considering he ran unopposed on the ballot. Murphy seeking a second term will face the Republican that GOP voters choose tonight.


UPDATE — 8 p.m. — The polls have closed in New Jersey. Check back tonight for unofficial results for the gubernatorial primaries.


Republican voters will decide Tuesday which of their four candidates will challenge Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in November.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The primaries include races for the Democratic-controlled Legislature as well as a slew of county and local races.

New Jersey 101.5 will have the gubernatorial primary results as they become available Tuesday night.

The election comes a year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which saw Murphy's approval rating skyrocket even as he faced Republican and even some Democratic criticism of his handling of the crisis. Murphy is unopposed on the ballot on the Democratic side.

While New Jersey is an increasingly Democratic state, the lasty Democratic incumbent governor to win re-election in the Garden State was Brendan Byrne in 1977/

The Republican field, meanwhile, has been marked by a battle over which candidate is most or least aligned with former President Donald Trump, who after two impeachments remains the GOP's standard-bearer.

The favored candidate among the party's establishment is former Somerset County Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who has led in the fundraising race. He lost the gubernatorial primary four years ago to former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Hudson County pastor Phil Rizzo and Atlantic County engineer Hirsh Singh, who has been unsuccessful in past elections, and former Franklin mayor and Somerset County freeholder Brian Levine also are on the ballot.

NJ Republican gubernatorial candidates

Watch the Republican debate

Only Ciattarelli and Singh met the Election Law Enforcement Commission's qualifications to participate in the sanctioned debates. New Jersey 101.5 held the only debate after Singh dropped out of a planned second debate that would have been broadcast by NJ PBS.

CHECK OUT: 53 towns in NJ that switched from Trump to Biden

NJ towns that actually cut property taxes in 2020

New Jersey property taxes went up by $158 for the average homeowner last year, making the average residential property tax bill $9,111. Here are the municipalities that saw their average tax bill decrease.

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