TRENTON, N.J. —

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy narrowly won reelection Wednesday, eking out a victory that spared Democrats the loss of a second gubernatorial seat.

Video above: NJ Gov. Phil Murphy touts accomplishments ahead of election

He's the state's first Democratic governor to get a second straight term in 44 years, defeating Republican former Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli.

AP called the race Thursday evening when a new batch of votes from Republican leaning Monmouth County increased Murphy's lead and closed the door to a Ciattarelli comeback.

Ballots remaining to be counted included a significant number of votes from predominantly Democratic Essex County, along with mail-in votes spread across other counties. Murphy has won the mail-in vote by a wide margin even in Republican leaning counties like Monmouth.

Ciattarelli spokesperson Stami Williams disputed the call because of the close margin, calling it "irresponsible."

Murphy was scheduled to speak later on Wednesday.

Ciattarelli waged a formidable campaign in the heavily Democratic New Jersey, his spending nearly equaling the governor's and outpacing the GOP's performance four years ago. But Murphy's advantages, including 1 million more registered Democrats, proved too much for the Republican to overcome.

The victory gives Democrats a silver lining after GOP businessman Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's gubernatorial race — exacerbating worries that President Joe Biden's sagging approval ratings are hurting the party. This year's elections were the first major tests of voter sentiment since Biden took office and pointed to a potentially painful year ahead for Democrats as they try to maintain thin majorities in Congress.

The closeness of the race has surprised experts, who watched public polls showing Murphy leading comfortably and looked to his party's registration advantage.

"If you asked anybody several months ago within the state, I think anyone would have predicted a high double digit landslide for Murphy," said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.

Murphy's win also ends the more than three-decade-old trend of the party opposite the president's winning in New Jersey's off-year governor's race. Voters came out in much higher rates for Ciattarelli this year than they did for his GOP predecessor in 2017.

The 64-year-old governor said he was acutely aware of the political trends, calling them an "animating" force for his reelection effort that spurred him to run as if he were 10 points behind.

Murphy built his campaign around the progressive accomplishments he signed into law — like a phased in $15 an hour minimum wage and paid sick leave along with taxes on the wealthy — and brought on Democratic allies, like progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, in to campaign for him.

With a Democrat-led Legislature, Murphy achieved most of the promises he made in his first run four years ago when he vied to succeed Republican Chris Christie. Paid sick leave, taxpayer-financed community college and some pre-K, tighter gun laws, expanded voting access, recreational marijuana, more state aid for schools and a fully funded public pension — all promised and all delivered during the first term. A proposal for a public bank to finance projects went unfulfilled.

Murphy is a former Goldman Sachs executive and served as ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama, who campaigned for Murphy in the weeks before Election Day.

He has said his next term will be about enacting a Reproductive Freedom Act aimed at codifying Roe v. Wade in the state as well as additional gun control laws and the expansion of taxpayer-financed pre-K for 3-year-olds.

Headwinds facing Democrats, like President Joe Biden's falling approval ratings and congressional Democrats' struggles to enact their agenda didn't factor heavily enough into some experts' pre-election analysis, said Ben Dworkin, the director of Rowan University's Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship. He counted himself among them.

A spokesperson for Ciattarelli said Wednesday that the campaign was focused on the vote count and said that a possible legal pursuit of a recount was on the table. Murphy also called Wednesday morning for every vote to be counted.

New Jersey does not have an automatic recount law, but the candidates are permitted to request one. The party that wants a recount has to file a suit in State Superior Court in the counties where they want to contest tallies. That has to be done within 17 days of Election Day.

Ciattarelli is a former state Assembly member, serving until 2018. He's the founder of a medical publishing company called Galen Publishing, and served as a local and county official in Somerset.

He walked a line between standing up for the moderate stances he had in the Legislature — like supporting Roe v. Wade — and appealing to Republicans who embraced Trump, particularly on cultural issues that have captured attention across the country.

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Associated Press writer Christina Paciolla contributed to this report.

NORWOOD, Ohio — Despite two hopefuls' best efforts, the primary race for Cincinnati mayor will remain a contest among six candidates come May 4.

At a Friday afternoon meeting of the Hamilton County Board of Elections' Norwood headquarters, members considered appeals from two people who petitioned to appear on the ballot but later were told not all the signatures they gathered were valid.

"I think I would have made an excellent candidate," said Adam Koehler, 44, of Mount Auburn. "Obviously, we're disappointed. I think the voters should have more choice, not less."

Koehler and 48-year-old Kelli Prather, of West Price Hill -- both hoping to run as Democrats -- each failed to gather the 500 valid signatures necessary to earn a place on the mayoral primary ballot, according to the Board of Elections.

Both failed to garner board members' support for their appeals Friday, as well, due to mistakes in the way the signatures were collected and submitted.

To be a valid signature, it must be from a registered, city of Cincinnati voter, and be accompanied by an address that matches that which the Board of Elections had on file for that name. The City Charter and the Ohio Revised Code outline some more specific technicalities, as well.

Watch the Board of Election members' full discussion of Koehler and Prather's appeals here:

Ultimately, the board voted 2-1 to reject Koehler's appeal and 3-0 to reject Prather's. One board member abstained in each vote.

"I think there are flaws in the process in terms of what they will decide is allowable," Koehler said after making his case to the board.

Prather took the board's rejection of her signatures on a more personal level.

"In my opinion, it just screams of discrimination or process of elimination, and I'm highly concerned with the way the process was conducted," she said, referring to what she argued was an inconsistent manner of processing the signatures she collected as valid.

Prather is no stranger to local elections: In 2016, she ran in the Democratic primary for an open Ohio seat in the U.S. Senate, and in 2020, she ran in the race for Hamilton County Commissioner.

She pointed out to the board Friday that she would have been the only woman on the ballot in May and, if elected, she would have become the first Black woman to serve as Cincinnati's mayor.

Democrat Yvette Simpson succeeded in the 2017 primary before losing to incumbent John Cranley in that year's general election.

When attempting to collect signatures for this race, Prather submitted three rounds of signatures, each time finding that not enough of them were verifiable as valid.

Some of the signatures she submitted were in the form of photocopies, she said, due to the original documents being damaged while being collected during a snowstorm.

Board chair Gwen McFarlin, also a Democrat and head of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, pointed to Prather's experience in elections and said the clock simply worked against her.

"You're a very seasoned candidate, and haste makes waste," said McFarlin. "You know the process. In this situation, you have to be held accountable that you did not turn in original petitions. These are copies."

In addition to Koehler and Prather, the elections board staff also rejected City Councilman Wendell Young's petitioned signatures to be on the ballot. Young chose not to appeal that decision.

Before Friday's meeting concluded, Prather indicated interest in challenging the board members' decision.

Friday's votes leave six candidates on the mayoral ticket for May 4:

• Gavi Begtrup (Mount Lookout)
• David Mann (Clifton)
• Herman J. Najoli (West Price Hill)
• Raffel Prophett (Avondale)
• Aftab Pureval (Clifton)
• Cecil Thomas (Avondale)

The top two vote-getters in the May 4 primary will advance to the general election in November.