1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary

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1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primaries
Flag of New Jersey.svg
  1968 June 6, 1972 1976  
  SD
NM  
Presidential delegate primary

109 Democratic National Convention delegates
  George McGovern (D-SD) (3x4-1).jpg NOTA Option Logo 3x4.svg Hubert Humphrey 1968 DNC.jpg
Candidate George McGovern Uncommitted Hubert Humphrey
Home state South Dakota Minnesota
Delegate count73279
Popular vote211,77190,544172,383
Percentage53.3%3.3%43.4%
Presidential preference primary (non-binding)

No Democratic National Convention delegates
  Shirley Chisholm (3).jpg Terry Sanford 1961.jpg
Candidate Shirley Chisholm Terry Sanford
Home state New York North Carolina
Popular vote51,43325,401
Percentage66.9%33.1%

1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary election results map by county, margin included.svg
Results by county
Chisholm:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%
Sanford:     60–70%

The 1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary was held on June 6, 1972, in New Jersey as one of the Democratic Party's statewide nomination contests ahead of the 1972 United States presidential election.

Contents

In the binding delegate primary, candidates pledged to support George McGovern at the 1972 Democratic National Convention won contests for delegates at-large and most of the county races. Delegates pledged to support Hubert H. Humphrey carried Camden and Ocean counties, while slates of delegates not committed to any candidate won in Atlantic, Essex, Hudson, Salem and Warren counties. [1]

In the non-binding preference primary, only Shirley Chisholm and Terry Sanford appeared on the ballot. Chisholm won the contest, becoming the first woman to win a statewide presidential nominating contest for a major party, as well as being the second African-American winner after Walter Fauntroy's win in the Washington D.C. contest of the same year. [2] Neither of the candidates in the preference primary won delegates from the contest, although Chisholm fielded delegate candidates in several counties, and it was largely ignored by New Jersey voters, with the combined total vote for Chisholm and Sanford well below that cast for McGovern or Humphrey alone in the statewide delegate contest.

Over 575,078 ballots were cast, the highest recorded for a Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey at the time, and in combination with the Republican primary held the same day, a higher percentage of eligible voters (26.2%) cast a ballot in the 1972 primaries than in any presidential year since 1952 (39%). [1] Turnout was highest in Essex (37.5%) and Hudson (37.8%) counties, [1] where the primary presented voters a referendum on local party machine leaders.

Candidates

Binding delegate primary

Non-binding preference primary

Endorsements

Shirley Chisholm
Individuals
Hubert Humphrey
U.S. executive branch officials
U.S. congressmembers
State legislators
Local officials
Party officials
Individuals
  • Carol Norcross, wife of labor leader George Norcross Jr. and matriarch of the Norcross political family (ran for county delegate) [1]
George McGovern
State legislators
Local officials
Party officials
Individuals
Edmund Muskie
Local officials
Individuals
  • Garret Hobart IV, Morristown attorney and great-grandson of Vice President of the United States Garret Hobart (ran for county delegate) [1]
Uncommitted
U.S. congressmembers
State legislators
Local officials
Party officials
Individuals

Results

Preference primary results

1972 New Jersey presidential preference primary [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Shirley Chisholm 51,433 66.94%
Democratic Terry Sanford 25,40133.06%
Total votes76,834 100.00%

Delegate primary results

Delegate slateCandidateDelegate candidatesDelegatesAggregate votes
StateCountyTotalOf total (%)TotalOf total (%)
McGovern for President George McGovern 71027366.973,084,32848.27
Humphrey for President Hubert Humphrey 78598.261,712,12426.80
Other/Uncommitted41102724.771,415,06822.15
Chisholm for President Shirley Chisholm 07900.0125,3391.96
Muskie for President Edmund Muskie 03700.047,6650.75
Committed to Alabama Governor George Wallace 0500.04,6320.07
Total18418109100.06,389,156100.00
Registered voters, and turnout

Delegate primary results by contest

1972 New Jersey Democratic primary [1]
ContestDelegates
and popular vote
Total
McGovernUncommitted [a] HumphreyChisholmMuskieWallaceOther
Delegates at-large7
1,482,398 (53.31%)

90,544 (3.26%)

1,206,685 (43.41%)
2,779,627
Atlantic
6,658 (31.67%)
3
11,377 (54.11%)

922 (4.39%)

2,067 (9.83%)
21,024
Bergen 13
420,080 (66.78%)

169,590 (26.87%)

28,545 (4.54%)

8,049 (1.28%)

2,817 (0.45%)
629,081
Burlington 4
27,560 (51.83%)

24,629 (46.32%)

984 (1.85%)
53,173
Camden
80,835 (46.72%)
7
92,172 (53.28%)
173,007
Cape May 1
910 (49.48%)

464 (25.23%)

465 (25.29%)
1,839
Cumberland 2
3,984 (43.96%)

1,659 (18.31%)

3,420 (37.74%)
9,063
Essex 1
427,403 (42.69%)
13
489,521 (48.89%)

45,034 (4.50%)

39,293 (3.92%) [b]
1,001,251
Gloucester 2
6,321 (49.16%)

5,822 (45.28%)

715 (5.56%)
12,858
Hudson
92,851 (12.94%)
6
296,053 (41.26%)

16,417 (2.29%)

21,619 (3.01%)
3
290,557 (40.50%) [c]
717,497
Hunterdon 1
1,642 (47.96%)

1,168 (34.11%)

614 (17.93%)
3,424
Mercer 5
54,751 (64.40%)

2,619 (3.08%)

17,834 (20.98%)

6,502 (7.65%)

3,307 (3.89%)
85,013
Middlesex 8
134,035 (45.72%)

98,855 (33.72%)

60,303 (20.56%)
293,193
Monmouth 6
60,476 (48.56%)

29,561 (23.74%)

26,499 (21.28%)

4,203 (3.37%)

3,327 (2.67%)

477 (0.38%)
124,543
Morris 5
51,655 (58.84%)

2,739 (3.12%)

18,097 (20.61%)

4,804 (5.47%)

5,867 (6.68%)

4,632 (5.28%)
87,794
Ocean 1
10,314 (35.14%)

6,445 (21.96%)
2
11,214 (38.21%)

1,375 (4.69%) [d]
29,348
Passaic 6
46,949 (49.89%)

5,505 (5.85%)

28,836 (30.64%)

3,994 (4.24%)

5,158 (5.48%)

3,658 (3.89%) [e]
94,100
Salem
858 (36.78%)
1
1,475 (63.22%)
2,333
Somerset 2
11,035 (65.24%)

736 (4.35%) [f]

3,928 (23.22%)

1,215 (7.18%)
16,914
Sussex 1
1,792 (53.65%)

1,048 (31.38%)

162 (4.85%)

338 (10.12%)
3,340
Union 8
160,102 (64.81%)

71,884 (29.10%)

13,541 (5.48%)

1,503 (0.61%)
247,030
Warren
1,719 (46.41%)
1
1,985 (53.59%)
3,704
County subtotal [g] 66
1,601,930 (44.38%)
24
980,613 (27.17%)
9
505,439 (14.00%)

125,339 (3.47%)

47,665 (1.32%)

4,632 (0.13%)
3
343,911 (9.53%)
3,609,529
  1. Uncommitted totals in the county elections are the totals of the top slate of uncommitted delegate candidates. Additional delegate candidates are listed under "other".
  2. 35,747 votes for "Independent Uncommitted Democrats", a slate led by Newark mayor Kenneth A. Gibson, and 3,546 for "For a United Democratic Party", a partial slate led by Julius Schechter.
  3. 285,476 votes (39.79%) and 3 delegates for "Regular Democratic Organization", a slate led by Dominick V. Daniels, and 5,081 (0.71%) for "Action Democrats".
  4. 906 votes for a slate without a slogan led by Margaret Zinkin, 246 for Gaetano J. Alaimo, running with the slogan "Uncommitted Demeocrat for Draft," and 221 for Jo Ann Pietro, running with the slogan "Fresh Hope Through the New Democrats".
  5. All 3,658 votes cast for Walter F. Hoffmann running with the slogan, "Democrat for a Stronger United Nations".
  6. All 736 votes for a slate running with the slogan "The John F. Kennedy Tradition".
  7. Because counties with larger populations were allotted multiple delegates, elected individually, each voter in those counties cast multiple ballots. The subtotal is therefore disproportionately skewed in favor of those counties.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 "1972 New Jersey primary results" (PDF). nj.gov.
  2. Delaney, Paul. "Fauntroy Slats Wins in Capital Vote". New York Times.
  3. "2 Newark Bridges Over Passaic Face Closing as Perils". The New York Times . August 30, 1972. p. 6. Retrieved May 29, 2025. Two of the three bridges linking Newark with western Hudson County will be closed to all vehicles soon unless the state agrees to finance their repair, Hudson County Freeholder Angelo Cifelli warned today.