1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey

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1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Flag of New Jersey.svg
  1964 November 5, 1968 1972  
  Nixon 30-0316a (cropped).jpg Hubert Humphrey in New York, 1968 (3x4 crop).jpg George Wallace (D-AL) (3x4).jpg
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace
Party Republican Democratic American Independent
Home state New York [lower-alpha 1] Minnesota Alabama
Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie Curtis LeMay
Electoral vote1700
Popular vote1,325,4671,264,206262,187
Percentage46.10%43.97%9.12%

New Jersey Presidential Election Results 1968.svg
County Results

President before election

Lyndon Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

The 1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 17 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

Contents

New Jersey was won by the Republican nominees, former Vice President Richard Nixon of California and his running mate Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland. Nixon and Agnew defeated the Democratic nominees, incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and his running mate Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine. Also in the running was the American Independent Party candidate, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and his running mate U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay of California.

Nixon carried New Jersey with a plurality of 46.10% to Humphrey's 43.97%, a margin of 2.13%. In a distant third came Wallace with 9.12%. [1] In the midst of a narrow Republican victory nationally, New Jersey voted basically how the nation voted, its result was just 1% more Republican than the national average.

Nixon's victory was the first of six consecutive Republican victories in the state, as New Jersey would not vote for a Democratic candidate again until Bill Clinton in 1992. Nixon became the first ever Republican to win the White House without carrying Atlantic, Essex, or Cumberland Counties, as well as the first to do so without carrying Middlesex County since Benjamin Harrison in 1888. This is only the second election, along with 1932, when New Jersey was won by less than a percentage point by FDR, since 1880 in which New Jersey voted for a different candidate than nearby Connecticut.

Results

1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Republican Richard Nixon 1,325,46746.10%17
Democratic Hubert H. Humphrey 1,264,20643.97%0
American Independent George Wallace 262,1879.12%0
Socialist Workers Fred Halstead 8,6670.30%0
Peace and Freedom Party Dick Gregory 8,0840.28%0
Socialist Labor Henning A. Blomen 6,7840.24%0
Totals2,875,395100.0%17
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)66%/87%

Results by county

CountyRichard Nixon
Republican
Hubert Humphrey
Democratic
George Wallace
American Independent
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %# %
Atlantic 32,80742.15%35,58145.71%7,5289.67%1,9182.46%-2,774-3.56%77,834
Bergen 224,91154.45%162,18239.27%23,6635.73%2,2810.55%62,72915.18%413,037
Burlington 46,17746.29%41,65141.76%11,63511.66%2840.28%4,5264.53%99,747
Camden 77,64241.10%87,34746.24%23,11112.24%7870.42%-9,705-5.14%188,887
Cape May 14,97053.14%9,66434.30%3,49812.42%400.14%5,30618.84%28,172
Cumberland 18,38840.42%21,66147.62%5,35611.77%830.18%-3,273-7.20%45,488
Essex 140,08439.23%185,44051.93%26,8237.51%4,7481.33%-45,356-12.70%357,095
Gloucester 30,59644.52%27,43839.92%10,62615.46%710.10%3,1584.60%68,731
Hudson 91,32437.34%124,93951.09%23,1389.46%5,1592.11%-33,615-13.75%244,560
Hunterdon 15,85157.77%8,75531.91%2,74910.02%840.31%7,09625.86%27,439
Mercer 45,35436.13%63,21850.36%16,10412.83%8530.68%-17,864-14.23%125,529
Middlesex 96,51542.79%103,33945.82%24,13810.70%1,5380.68%-6,824-3.03%225,530
Monmouth 87,31151.22%69,66940.87%13,0477.65%4290.25%17,64210.35%170,456
Morris 85,51257.75%52,39835.39%9,6596.52%4930.33%33,11422.36%148,062
Ocean 41,99553.87%26,90934.52%8,52010.93%5390.69%15,08619.35%77,963
Passaic 79,86246.25%74,44243.12%16,6179.62%1,7361.01%5,4203.13%172,657
Salem 11,40743.45%11,17242.56%3,64713.89%250.10%2350.89%26,251
Somerset 42,45954.11%27,58035.14%7,3319.34%1,1051.41%14,87918.97%78,475
Sussex 18,04361.71%8,32528.47%2,8439.72%290.10%9,71833.24%29,240
Union 110,30945.72%109,67445.46%19,9638.27%1,3100.54%6350.26%241,256
Warren 13,95048.13%12,82244.24%2,1917.56%230.08%1,1283.89%28,986
Totals1,325,46746.10%1,264,20643.97%262,1879.12%23,5350.82%61,2612.13%2,875,395

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Analysis

Despite the closeness of the statewide result, Nixon won a strong majority of the state's 21 counties, taking 14 counties, while Humphrey won 7. Humphrey kept the race fairly close by performing strongly in heavily populated core Democratic counties like Essex County, Hudson County, and Mercer County, along with winning Democratic-leaning counties like Middlesex County, Camden County, Atlantic County, and Cumberland County. Other highly populated counties like Passaic County and Union County were won by Nixon but only by narrow margins. Passaic County went to Nixon 46.3—43.1, while Union County went to Nixon by a razor-thin 45.7—45.5 margin.

Nixon was able to take the advantage statewide however with a big win in heavily populated Bergen County, taking 54.5% of the vote there, along with wins in several other fairly populated suburban counties like Monmouth County and Morris County, as well as winning many rural counties. Nixon's strongest county by vote share was rural Sussex County, where he received 61.7% of the vote to Humphrey's 28.5%. Humphrey's strongest county by vote share was urban Essex County, where he received 51.9% of the vote to Nixon's 39.2%.

George Wallace, running on a Southern populist platform, finished a distant third in New Jersey, with a single-digit vote share percentage. But this was still a surprisingly strong performance for Wallace in a Northeastern state like New Jersey. Discounting the border states of Maryland and Delaware, Wallace's 9.12% in New Jersey was the highest statewide vote share he received out of any Northeastern state. Wallace performed most strongly in South Jersey, where he broke into double-digit support in several counties. Wallace's strongest county was Gloucester County, a rural county in the southwestern portion of the state by the Delaware border, where he received 15.5% of the vote.

See also

Notes

  1. Although he was born in California and he served as a U.S. Senator from California, in 1968 Richard Nixon's official state of residence was New York, because he moved there to practice law after his defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. During his first term as president, Nixon re-established his residency in California. Consequently, most reliable reference books list Nixon's home state as New York in the 1968 election and his home state as California in the 1972 (and 1960) election.

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References

  1. "1968 Presidential General Election Results - New Jersey". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved November 25, 2013.