Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has pushed New Jersey in a more progressive direction and overseen the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, won a second term as the Garden State’s governor Wednesday night, narrowly defeating Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a bitter and closer-than-expected race that was too close to call for nearly 24 hours.

The race was called by The Associated Press early Wednesday evening.

Murphy fended off a fierce challenge from Ciattarelli, a former member of the state Assembly, to become the first Democrat in 44 years to be re-elected New Jersey governor. Brendan Byrne last did it it, in 1977.

The race ended up being much closer than polls that predicted a single-digit but comfortable victory for Murphy, a 64-year-old former Wall Street executive and American diplomat.

As of just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Murphy’s margin over Ciattarelli was less than a percentage point — 50% to 49.2%. It’s a difference of 19,440 votes out of 2.4 million cast, which if it holds up would make it among the closest governor’s race New Jersey has ever had.

The Murphy campaign immediately announced it will hold a victory party at 10 p.m. in Asbury Park.

But the Ciattarelli campaign criticized the call by the AP.

“With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,” Ciattarelli spokeswoman Stami Williams said in a statement.

It’s possible the race could still be contested. Mail-in and provisional ballots may be counted through Monday, and Ciattarelli could petition the state courts for a recount.

Murphy’s victory was one of the lone bright spots for Democrats and a stifling blow just one year after the state turned out in droves to send President Biden to the White House. Several Democrats who were favored to win re-election in legislative races were unseated. The most notable was long-time Senate President Steve Sweeney.

The race was notable for the number of New Jersey residents who voted early and by mail. Counting those ballots and reporting totals led to confusion Tuesday night and early Wednesday as Ciattarelli seemed poised for a shocking victory. The election also was plagued by votes that were wrongly assigned or double counted in certain counties.

Ciattarelli led the incumbent in early returns deep into election night on Tuesday, rolling up big support in suburban and traditionally Republican parts of the state, while turnout in urban areas was light for Murphy compared to four years ago. Both campaigns left their election night parties without declaring victory or conceding defeat, as Ciattarelli led Murphy by about 1 percentage point overnight.

But Murphy — the state’s 56th governor — pulled ahead Wednesday as more votes were tabulated from Democratic-leaning areas.

In the end, Murphy cracked the 1.2 million vote mark Wednesday evening, meaning he registered slightly more votes than he did in 2017, when he beat Kim Guadagno, Chris Christie’s former lieutenant governor, by a margin of 56-42%.

Ciattarelli’s 1.19 million votes are about 200,000 more than Guadagno’s final total. The challenger, whose sharp TV and radio advertisements painted Murphy as an out-of-touch, spend-happy outsider, rode strong performances in Republican strongholds such as Monmouth and Ocean counties, and clawed into the governor’s margins in suburban counties.

The election could also be seen as part of a wakeup call for national Democrats heading into next year’s midterm elections, in which the party will aim to keep control of Congress two years into Democratic President Joe Biden’s first term.

New Jersey was one of only two states to hold a gubernatorial election this year. The other was Virginia, where Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democratic former Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

This all comes four years after Murphy easily won a first term, succeeding the term-limited Republican Chris Christie. Democrats have turned the state even bluer in recent years, thanks in part to suburban backlash against Christie and Republican former President Donald Trump. Heading into Tuesday, there were more than 1 million registered Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey.

Murphy, a Middletown resident, installed more progressive policies in New Jersey, including signing laws raising the minimum wage, enacting equal pay and paid family leave, strengthening gun control, restoring funding for women’s health clinics, and increasing taxes on millionaires and corporations. He openly suggested he wanted to remold the state as the “California of the East Coast.”

The governor also saw his popularity soar in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged the state early. Murphy installed some of the most stringent lockdown, mask, and vaccine orders in the country to fight the crisis that has now killed more than 28,000 residents.

But Ciattarelli, also a former Somerset County freeholder and owner of a medical publishing company, argued that Murphy had “broken” New Jersey with high taxes and a more liberal bent. He vowed to lower property taxes by revamping the state’s school funding formula.

He also dismissed Murphy, a Massachusetts native who has lived in the Garden State for more than 20 years, as being “not New Jersey.”

Ciattarelli and other Republicans criticized Murphy’s coronavirus measures for being draconian and blamed him for the deaths of more than 8,000 people in the state’s nursing homes and longterm care facilities.

As a national debate raged over masks and vaccine mandates — especially in schools — Murphy lifted statewide face covering rules in May but is still requiring New Jersey students wear them in schools. So far, children under 12 have not been eligible for the vaccine. Murphy has also ordered state workers, teachers, health care employees, and more to get the COVID-19 vaccine or face regular testing.

Ciattarelli has opposed mask and vaccine mandates, saying it should be up to people — and parents — to choose how they protect themselves. He has, however, supported giving workers a testing option if the decline the vaccine.

Murphy, in turn, tried to link Ciattarelli to former Trump, who remains popular with the Republican base but is widely unpopular in New Jersey. The governor warned the ex-lawmaker would bring the state “backwards.”

The race originally showed Murphy with a hefty double-digit lead over Ciattarelli, who battled low name recognition. But Murphy’s lead had shrunk to single digits in recent weeks. Ciattarelli had never led in a single public-opinion poll.

But Ciattarelli saw strong showings in counties Republicans must win to have a chance in a statewide election — trouncing the governor, for example, in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

Ciattarelli also three counties that had voted for Murphy in 2017: Atlantic, Cumberland, and Gloucester.

Murphy has not laid out detailed plans for a second term, though he has said one main goal is to further tighten New Jersey’s already strict gun laws.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.

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

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.