Between the two gubernatorial elections on Tuesday, Virginia was supposed to be the lopsided one — and it was , with Democrat Abigail Spanberger crushing Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points .

But New Jersey looked like it was going to be a different story. The polling was competitive, and Republicans had nominated a battle-tested candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, who’d nearly won the governorship four years earlier. Recent momentum was on the GOP’s side, too, with President Donald Trump coming within 6 points of Kamala Harris there last year — a giant improvement from the 16-point Jersey drubbing he’d suffered in 2020. And Democrats were privately sharing alarm that their nominee, Mikie Sherrill, seemed to be wilting under the spotlight.

At the very least, this was going

See Full Page