Primary election results

There were no local elections for City Council or mayor — that’s next year — but Rahway voters like the rest of  the state still cast ballots in this year’s primary for governor and other state races on Tuesday.

Phil Murphy won the Democratic nomination with 48 percent of the vote statewide. Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) and Jim Johnson finished at about 22 percent, with Wisniewski ahead by a few hundred votes. Longtime State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) finished fourth with 5 percent.

Locally, Murphy won Rahway with about 42 percent of the vote, followed by Johnson at 25 percent and Wisniewski at 12 percent, according to unofficial results tabulated by the county clerk’s office. Lesniak was again fourth at 6 percent.

Murphy carried all but one of Rahway’s 24 voting districts, losing just District 2 within the 1st Ward by four votes (52-48), according to unofficial tallies. Johnson finished second in almost every district, falling behind Wisniekewsi in three of four districts in the 3rd Ward and tying in one 2nd Ward district.

Murphy won all six wards overall, carrying four with at least 40 percent of the vote, including a high of 49 percent in the 4th Ward. His weakest showing was in the 5th Ward (36 percent) and 6th Ward (32 percent) where he still outpaced Johnson by 14 and 12 percent, respectively.

Murphy carried Union County with 50 percent of the vote, followed by Johnson at 25 percent, and Wisniewski at 14 percent. Lesniak came in fourth in Union County, at 9 percent. Some 36,000 votes were cast across 431 districts, with almost 15 percent of more than 320,000 eligible voters casting ballots.

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno won the Republican nomination, beating her closest rival, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerville) by a margin of 47 to 30 percent statewide. In Rahway, she carried most districts despite only single-digit totals in all but two of the 24 voting districts. Overall, she tallied 112 votes in in the Carriage City, almost double Ciattarelli’s 62 votes. Finishing third in Rahway with 37 votes was Hirsh Singh.

Countwide, the Republican race was much closer, with different results. Ciattarelli garnered almost 42 percent of the vote, edging Guadagno’s 39 percent by about 200 votes. Singh finished third in the county with almost 10 percent.

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