In heavily Democratic New Jersey, the governor race is surprisingly close

While Democrats were bracing for an upset in Virginia, perhaps the biggest shock out of Tuesday's election was a tight race for governor of deep-blue New Jersey.

For months, polls have shown that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy had a comfortable lead — as much as 11 points according to a Monmouth University poll released last week — over Republican Jack Ciattarelli. But the race is too close to call and it could take a week to count mailed ballots.

Either campaign can request a recount.

Even though Jack Ciattarelli ran in the 2017 Republican primary for governor, he was largely unknown across the state. But he turned out votes in the Republican stronghold districts of Ocean and Monmouth counties, and also did well in suburbs across the state. Morris County, which had recently been shifting blue, supported the Republican.

Some 500,000 voters mailed their ballots, and no information is yet available about how many of those have been counted. But an unknown amount of ballots will continue to arrive by mail. Ballots postmarked by election day can be counted until next Monday.