In his victory speech in Newark, Murphy made clear that he wasn’t just running against Guadagno. He’s also running against Christie and President Donald Trump. | AP Photo Murphy, Guadagno win gubernatorial primaries

NEWARK — New Jersey’s Democratic and Republican gubernatorial front-runners easily won their party primaries Tuesday night, setting up a November battle between Phil Murphy, a wealthy former Goldman Sachs executive, and Republican Kim Guadagno, the state’s current and first ever lieutenant governor.

Murphy, who served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013, spent more than $20 million on the primary, much of it from his own pocket. He’s widely favored to win in November after eight years of Republican Gov. Chris Christie, whose approval rating is in the high teens, and because of New Jersey’s Democratic tilt.


In his victory speech in Newark, Murphy made clear that he wasn’t just running against Guadagno. He’s also running against Christie and President Donald Trump.

“We are better than Donald Trump and we are better than Chris Christie,” Murphy told the crowd in a speech that repeatedly referred to both men.

Murphy’s Goldman Sachs background was seized on by his opponents, who used it to challenge Murphy’s progressive bona fides and cast him as a clone of former Gov. Jon Corzine, whose time in Goldman Sachs leadership overlapped with Murphy’s.

But Murphy’s organizational advantage, with the support of all the state’s 21 county Democratic organizations and the favorable ballot placement that came with it, was impossible to overcome. Early returns showed Murphy leading each of his two closest opponents — attorney Jim Johnson and Assemblyman John Wisniewski — by more than a 2-1 margin.

The Democratic candidates have differed little on policy, with each presenting a liberal and anti-Trump platform. Murphy’s most prominent campaign plank is to create a state-run bank that would service student loans and invest New Jersey’s pension money.

Saying the “very essence of America is under assault” by Trump, Murphy called for increasing taxes on the wealthiest New Jerseyans, restoring funding to Planned Parenthood, not using state resources to enforce federal immigration laws, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, legalizing marijuana and improving New Jersey’s decrepit commuter railroad.

“Today I am less certain that the successes I had are available to this generation and those who will follow, and that is most of all why I am running for governor: To change business as usual so that every child has the same opportunities that I had,” he said.

Guadagno focused her campaign on “auditing” Trenton — above and beyond the role of the current state auditor — and a $1.5 billion plan to cut property taxes for middle- and working-class homeowners, a plan she says would be partly paid for with savings from the audit.

Her main opponent, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli highlighted the state’s rocky economic recovery and 11 credit downgrades during the Christie administration and has cast Guadagno as a continuation of the Christie administration.

At a victory party in Monmouth Beach, Guadagno thanked Ciattarelli and the other Republican challengers, acknowledging it had been “a tough primary.”

“It was very hard for all of us to fight an in-fight,” she said of the Democrats.

Guadagno made no mention of Christie in her speech and worked to set herself apart, saying several times she was running based on her own ideals. She said the state was a better place for businesses today, but that homeowners in New Jersey still needed help. She ended her speech with a pledge — that she'll lower property taxes in her first term.

“I pledge to you, four years from now, I will not stand for re-election if I do not keep that promise,” she said.

Guadagno’s race was considered closer than the Democratic primary, but early returns showed her with a big lead over Ciattarelli, and the race was called early by the Associated Press.

The contests, as is typical for state primaries, were low turnout. Large swaths of voters were unfamiliar with even the most well-known candidates, and many who were paying attention saw the race as a fate accompli.

But that does not diminish its importance.

New Jersey’s governorship — the only statewide elected office aside from lieutenant governor and the two U.S. Senate seats — is one of the most, if not the most, powerful in the nation. Tuesday's results will set up one of the nation’s two first gubernatorial contests since President Donald Trump took office (Virginia's is the other).

Most Democratic insiders hoped Guadagno would win her primary, seeing her ties with Christie as a burden on her candidacy.

“She is very, very tied to Chris Christie. She’s tied to all the negatives that he’s led to here in New Jersey,’ state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said. “And she, for some reason, has never found her voice that whole time.”

Ryan Hutchins, Katie Jennings and Katherine Landergan contributed reporting.