The matchup for New Jersey’s gubernatorial race is set, with Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli having won their respective nominations Tuesday.

Ciattarelli’s victory, after having won the GOP nomination four years ago and gained President Trump’s coveted endorsement, seemed all but assured heading into the primary. Sherrill was the slight favorite in a crowded six-person field, but she ultimately prevailed comfortably by a double-digit margin over her next closest competitor.

Here are five early takeaways from the Garden State’s primaries Tuesday:

An establishment Democrat cruises through her primary

The Democratic race to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy (D) seemed wide open throughout most of the months-long primary battle.

A half-dozen major candidates with extensive resumes had gotten in the race, and polls consistently showed Sherrill had a slight lead, though within the margin of error. That lead grew somewhat in the race’s final weeks, albeit with many voters still undecided and the state’s polling being at times shaky in recent years.

But results quickly came in after polls closed. As of the latest vote count, Sherrill is on track to win with about 34 percent of the vote, while Newark Mayor Ras Baraka came in second with about 19.5 percent.

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who came in third, had high hopes for an upset as he ran an outsider, grassroots campaign trying to buck the political establishment. He sat out each of the state’s county nominating conventions, a plurality of which Sherrill won, as he sought to lean into the anti-establishment sentiment seen among the state’s Democrats for the past year.

But Fulop ultimately was unable to get close to Sherrill’s........

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