What Went Down During The 2021 Elections

Actually, a correction on my earlier post about New Jersey: Hunterdon County’s Election Day precincts are almost fully reporting, but there are still lots of mail votes left to count, and those of course should help Murphy.

Don’t look now, but with 25 percent of the expected vote in, Murphy leads Ciattarelli in New Jersey just 50 percent to 49 percent. Hunterdon County is almost fully reporting, and Ciattarelli won it by 23 points; Trump won by just 4 points last year. If you apply that swing statewide, Ciattarelli would win by 2 points.

To build on Leah’s point about Trump and the political spotlight: in a similar vein, Trump held two short rallies by phone for Republican candidates yesterday.

At 7 p.m. Eastern, Trump held a phone rally for Mike Carey, the Republican candidate for Ohio’s 15th district. The rally was open to anyone to call in, but was announced only within an hour or so of its start. “He’s been really successful at everything he’s done,” Trump said of Carey on the call. Carey was on the call and thanked Trump.

At 8 p.m. Eastern, Trump held a phone rally for Youngkin, the Republican candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial election. The rally was technically closed to press, but Youngkin did not attend either.