TRENTON -- Phil Murphy, a former Wall Street executive and diplomat with no previous elected experience but deep pockets and strong ties to the Democratic Party, easily defeated Republican Kim Guadagno Tuesday to succeed Chris Christie as New Jersey's governor.

As of Wednesday morning, with 99 percent of districts reporting, Murphy led Guadagno by about 13 percentage points -- 55.4 percent to 42.5 percent, according to the Associated Press. Murphy was ahead by nearly 250,000 voters -- 1.12 million to 859,000.

CNN, ABC, and NBC projected Murphy the victory around 8 p.m. Tuesday, almost immediately after the polls closed. The projection was based on exit polling and was an indicator the race would not be close.

Murphy's victory over Guadagno, Christie's lieutenant governor, will usher in a new era of Democratic rule in the Garden State after eight years of Christie, a once-popular Republican who saw his approval rating plummet to historic lows in recent years. Christie was prohibited by state law from running for a third consecutive term.

Murphy, 60, will become the first Democrat in the governor's office since Jon Corzine, another former Goldman Sachs executive who spent millions of his own money to win the seat in 2005 but lost re-election to Christie in 2009.

When Murphy is sworn in as the state's 56th governor Jan. 16, Democrats will likely control both the governor's office and the state Legislature for the first time since Corzine's four-year term.

All legislative races have not been called yet, but Democrats will at least hold -- if not expand -- their control of both the state Senate and Assembly.

"Tonight, we declare the days of division over," Murphy said during his victory speech in Asbury Park. "We will move forward together. ... We have each other's backs."

Murphy -- a former U.S. ambassador to Germany -- will take over arguably the most powerful governor's seat in the nation, with the ability to line-item veto bills and the state budget and appoint state officials who are elected in other states.

He has promised to push New Jersey in a progressive direction, vowing to legalize and tax marijuana, institute a $15 minimum wage, tighten the state's already strict gun-control laws, and ramp up funding for education, public-worker pensions, and transportation, while protecting undocumented immigrants and fighting the agenda of President Donald Trump, a Republican.

Murphy said Tuesday night that he will push back against "the mean winds" blowing out of Washington, D.C.

"This is one of the first major elections since Donald Trump was elected," he said. "Tonight, New Jersey sent an unmistakable message to the entire nation: We are better than this."

Murphy will also bring a much different personality to the governor's office than Christie did. Whereas Christie made national headlines for his brash, often combative attitude, Murphy is more low-key and prone to smiling even when challenged.

Murphy inherits a state with signifiant problems -- including the highest property taxes in the country, a troubled transportation system, and a public-worker pension system deeply in debt.

For Guadagno, the loss brings an end to her eight-year run in Trenton. With her association to Christie hanging on her like an albatross, Guadagno trailed Murphy by double digits in every poll and had a 3-to-1 fundraising disadvantage in a state where registered Democrats outnumber register Republicans by about 880,000.

Guadagno, who was vying to become only the second woman governor in state history, lost even though she had cut into Murphy's lead in polls with an aggressive push before Election Day.

Guadagno said during her concession speech that her campaign "made the best case possible."

"We were fighting for our families and we will continue that fight for lower taxes and a safer New Jersey," she told the crowd in Aberdeen. "This is not the end. ... We may have lost the battle, but we will win this war in the long run."

New Jersey was one of only two states in the U.S. with a governor's election Tuesday, along with Virginia.

And though voters in the blue state were getting to choose Christie's replacement a year after Trump's election, the race largely inspired apathy among Jerseyans. Up until last week, polls showed more than half of likely voters knew little about Guadagno or Murphy.

But a Democrat -- Ralph Northam -- also won Virginia's race. And political experts Tuesday were already framing both elections as a repudiation of Trump's policies.

Tuesday's victory caps an unexpected journey to the Statehouse for Murphy, a Boston area native who was little known in the state before entering this race last year.

Murphy gobbled up support from the Democratic Party chairs in key north Jersey counties to become the front-runner for the party's nomination, pushing aside expected candidates like Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

He then spent $16 million of his own fortune en route to handily beating five primary opponents to snag the Democratic nomination.

Murphy repeatedly linked Guadagno to Christie and promised to boost the state's economy, saying his time at Goldman Sachs taught him how to create jobs.

Guadagno repeatedly linked Murphy to Corzine, calling him an out-of-touch multimillionaire liberal who would raise taxes in the state.

Murphy plans to increase spending by $1.3 billion on education, pensions, and transportation by hiking taxes on wealthy residents, closing corporate tax loopholes, and taxing legal pot. He says the hikes would spare the middle class.

He also proposes instituting a state-run bank to help rev the economy.

Murphy vows to battle Trump's policies in a diverse state where the president is deeply unpopular. He said during a debate that he would even consider making New Jersey a "sanctuary state" to protect some undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Guadagno pounced on that, painting Murphy as being too soft on crime and releasing a controversial television ad that suggested he would even protect "deranged murderers" like Jose Carranza, an undocumented immigrant from Peru who was convicted of killing thee teens in Newark in 2007.

Murphy and his supporters denounced the commercial as racist and deceitful. Visiting Edison to stump for Murphy, former Vice President Joe Biden called it "the return of Willie Horton" -- a reference to the infamous ad in the 1988 presidential race.

Political experts said Guadagno appeared to be borrowing a page from Trump's far-right playbook to appeal to the GOP base in what was predicted to be a race with a record-low voter turnout.

It didn't work.

Polls showed that Guadagno was hurt by her connection to Christie, a one-time national Republican star and presidential contender whose approval ratings have dropped by nearly 50 percentage points over the last few years.

After voting in Mendham on Tuesday morning, Christie rejected the idea that this race was a referendum on his two terms as governor.

"This is not an election about me," Christie said. "I had my referendum. My referendum was four years ago."

Christie said he voted for @KimGuadagnoNJ, and that he doesn't think 2017 is a referendum on his tenure pic.twitter.com/aBMOPMYVWq — Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) November 7, 2017

New Jerseyans often pinball between electing Republicans and Democrats for governor. No Democratic governor has won re-election since Brendan Byrne did 40 years ago, in 1977.

Murphy overcame his ties to Goldman Sachs, which had become a target of derision during last year's presidential race. He spent 23 years at the Wall Street firm, managing its Asian and German offices.

He and his wife, Tammy Murphy, donated millions of dollars to the Democratic Party both locally and national over the years and he served as the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2006 to 2009.

President Barack Obama then chose Murphy to become America's ambassador to Germany, a post Murphy held until 2013.

Murphy was bolstered over the last two months by campaign visits from a string of big-name Democrats -- including Obama, Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore. Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi, his friend and neighbor, also performed at a Murphy rally two days before Election Day.

Murphy also had the support of dozens of labor unions, including the New Jersey Education Association and the Communication Workers of America.

Murphy's lieutenant governor will be Sheila Oliver, a veteran member of the state Assembly from Essex County who was the first black woman to serve as Assembly speaker in state history.

Oliver also won re-election to her Assembly seat on Tuesday. But under state law, she will have to give up that post to serve as lieutenant governor.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Matt Arco and Claude Brodesser-Akner contributed to this report.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.