2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary

2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary
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146 delegates (126 pledged, 20 unpledged); to the Democratic National Convention
	Election results by county Joe Biden

Last updated October 18, 2024

The 2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary took place on July 7, 2020, alongside the Delaware primary, as part of the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election. It was originally planned for June 2 together with four other primaries, but was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1] The New Jersey primary was a semi-closed primary, with the state awarding 146 delegates, of which 126 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.

Presumptive nominee and vice president Joe Biden won nearly 85% of the vote and almost all delegates. While senator Bernie Sanders closely failed to reach the 15% threshold for statewide delegates, he would have received 9 district delegates according to the final vote count, but for unknown reasons (possibly due to little time left for the delegate selection) the New Jersey Democrats only awarded him 5 delegates.

Procedure

New Jersey planned to originally hold its primary elections on June 2, 2020, the same day as that of Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and the District of Columbia,^[2] and was the only state on that date to move its primary, as New Jersey is traditionally one of the last states to vote. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced on April 8, 2020, that, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary would be postponed until July 7.^[3]

Voting was expected to take place throughout the state from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. In the semi-closed primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the delegate district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 126 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 3 and 6 were allocated to each of the state's 20 "delegate districts", each consisting of two legislative districts, and another 14 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 28 at-large delegates. Originally planned with 107 delegates, the final number included a 20% bonus of 19 additional delegates on the 70 district and 23 at-large delegates by the Democratic National Committee.^[4]^[5]

District-level delegates were chosen in the presidential primary with delegate candidates appearing on the ballot. Should presidential candidates have been entitled to more district delegates than delegate candidates presented, a special post-primary caucus at the state convention would have been called on July 18, to designate the additional delegates. The Democratic state committee subsequently convened at the state convention to vote on the 28 at-large and 14 pledged PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention. The delegation also included 20 unpledged PLEO delegates: 7 members of the Democratic National Committee, 12 members of Congress (both senators and 10 representatives), and the governor Phil Murphy.^[6]

On May 15, 2020, the governor signed an executive order declaring that the primary election would become a primarily vote-by-mail election. Democratic and Republican voters automatically received a vote-by-mail ballot while unaffiliated and inactive voters got a vote-by-mail application. Unaffiliated voters had to declare their party in the application and send it in to their respective county board of elections in order to vote and receive their primary election ballot. A limited number of polling stations in each county was available on primary day for those who preferred to vote in person (including with provisional ballots if they were unable to obtain one) and for voters with disabilities.^[7]

Pledged national convention delegates
Type	Del.	Type	Del.	Type	Del.
D1 (LD1, LD3)	3	D8 (LD14, LD15)	5	D15 (LD28, LD29)	6
D2 (LD2, LD9)	3	D9 (LD16, LD17)	4	D16 (LD31, LD33)	6
D3 (LD4, LD5)	4	D10 (LD18, LD19)	3	D17 (LD32, LD36)	5
D4 (LD6, LD7)	4	D11 (LD23, LD24)	3	D18 (LD34, LD35)	6
D5 (LD8, LD12)	3	D12 (LD21, LD27)	4	D19 (LD37, LD38)	6
D6 (LD10, LD30)	3	D13 (LD20, LD22)	4	D20 (LD39, LD40)	5
D7 (LD11, LD13)	4	D14 (LD25, LD26)	3	PLEO / At-large	14 / 28
Total pledged delegates					126

Candidates

The following candidates were on the ballot in New Jersey:^[8]

Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders (withdrawn)

There was also an "uncommitted" option.

Polling

Polling aggregation
Source of poll aggregation	Date updated	Dates polled	Joe Biden	Bernie Sanders	Undecided^{[lower-alpha 1]}
FiveThirtyEight ^[9]	Mar 8, 2020	until Feb 18, 2020^{[lower-alpha 2]}	35.5%	30.5%	34.0%

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Joe Biden	Michael Bloomberg	Cory Booker	Pete Buttigieg	Kamala Harris	Beto O'Rourke	Bernie Sanders	Elizabeth Warren	Other	Undecided
	Mar 5, 2020	Warren withdraws from the race
	Mar 4, 2020	Bloomberg withdraws from the race
	Mar 3, 2020	Super Tuesday
	Mar 2, 2020	Klobuchar withdraws from the race
	Mar 1, 2020	Buttigieg withdraws from the race
	Feb 29, 2020	South Carolina primary; Steyer withdraws from the race after close of polls
	Feb 22, 2020	Nevada caucuses
FDU ^[10]	Feb 12–16, 2020	357 (RV)	–	16%	23%	–	10%	–	–	25%	8%	7%^{[lower-alpha 3]}	11%
	Feb 11, 2020	New Hampshire primary; Yang withdraws from the race
	Feb 3, 2020	Iowa caucuses
Emerson College ^[11]	Jan 16–19, 2020	388	± 4.9%	28%	9%	–	6%	–	–	25%	15%	16%^{[lower-alpha 4]}	–
	Jan 13, 2020	Booker withdraws from the race
	Dec 3, 2019	Harris withdraws from the race
	Nov 24, 2019	Bloomberg announces his candidacy
Monmouth University ^[12]	Sep 12–16, 2019	713	± 3.7%	26%	–	9%	6%	6%	0%	18%	20%	7%^{[lower-alpha 5]}	8%
Change Research ^[13]	Aug 16–20, 2019	1176	± 2.9%	26%	–	5%	12%	8%	2%	21%	23%	3%^{[lower-alpha 6]}	–

Results

2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary^[14]
Candidate	Votes	%	Delegates^[6]
Joe Biden	814,188	84.92	121
Bernie Sanders (withdrawn)	140,412	14.65	5
Uncommitted	4,162	0.43
Total	958,762	100%	126

Results by county

Biden won every county in New Jersey. As was the case in the 2016 primary, Sanders performed best in the northwestern part of the state.

County^[14]	Biden	Biden %	Sanders	Sanders %
Atlantic	24,562	86.4%	3,867	13.6%
Bergen	84,620	84.7%	15,242	15.3%
Burlington	54,631	88.0%	7,424	12.0%
Camden	62,808	87.3%	9,111	12.7%
Cape May	7,973	86.3%	1,264	13.7%
Cumberland	11,590	87.8%	1,604	12.2%
Essex	87,316	88.5%	11,292	11.5%
Gloucester	30,911	85.6%	5,210	14.4%
Hudson	57,392	82.2%	12,448	17.8%
Hunterdon	12,551	82.1%	2,740	17.9%
Mercer	39,446	86.5%	6,131	13.5%
Middlesex	70,927	83.3%	14,218	16.7%
Monmouth	49,116	84.1%	9,284	15.9%
Morris	41,609	82.4%	8,904	17.6%
Ocean	35,520	85.6%	5,996	14.4%
Passaic	29,148	82.9%	6,030	17.1%
Salem	5,086	84.6%	928	15.4%
Somerset	32,244	83.8%	6,250	16.2%
Sussex	8,891	77.6%	2,564	22.4%
Union	60,035	88.0%	8,150	12.0%
Warren	7,317	81.3%	1,679	18.7%
Total	813,693	85.3%	140,336	14.7%

Notes

↑ Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined
↑ FiveThirtyEight aggregates polls with a trendline regression of polls rather than a strict average of recent polls.
↑ Klobuchar with 3%, Steyer with 2%, Gabbard with 0%, someone else at 1%
↑ Yang with 6%, Klobuchar with 3%, Gabbard with 3%, Delaney with 2%, someone else at 2%
↑ Gabbard with 2%; de Blasio, Klobuchar and Yang with 1%; Bennet, Bullock, Castro, O’Rourke, Ryan, Steyer and Williamson with <1%
↑ Gabbard, Steyer, and Yang with 1%

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References

↑ "New Jersey moves primary elections to July". The Hill. April 8, 2020.
↑ Putnam, Josh. "The 2020 Presidential Primary Calendar". Frontloading HQ. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
↑ Johnson, Brent (April 8, 2020). "Murphy officially postpones N.J.'s primary elections to July due to coronavirus outbreak". NJ.com. NJ Advance Media.
↑ "Democratic Timing Penalties and Bonuses". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
↑ "The Math Behind the Democratic Delegate Allocation - 2020". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
1 2 "2020 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions: New Jersey Democrat". The Green Papers. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
↑ Brent Johnson (May 15, 2020). "N.J.'s July 7 primary election will be mostly vote-by-mail during coronavirus pandemic, Murphy says". NJ.com . Retrieved May 25, 2020.
↑ "Primary Election Candidates: U.S. President" (PDF). Retrieved June 23, 2023.
↑ FiveThirtyEight
↑ FDU
↑ Emerson College
↑ Monmouth University
↑ Change Research Archived 2019-08-27 at the Wayback Machine
1 2 "Official Election Results -AMENDED-: Candidates for Democratic District Delegates/Alternate District Delegates For- July 7, 2020- PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). New Jersey Division of Elections. Retrieved September 20, 2020.

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[undecided-9] Calculated by taking the difference of 100% and all other candidates combined

[trendline-11] FiveThirtyEight aggregates polls with a trendline regression of polls rather than a strict average of recent polls.

[13] Klobuchar with 3%, Steyer with 2%, Gabbard with 0%, someone else at 1%

[15] Yang with 6%, Klobuchar with 3%, Gabbard with 3%, Delaney with 2%, someone else at 2%

[17] Gabbard with 2%; de Blasio, Klobuchar and Yang with 1%; Bennet, Bullock, Castro, O’Rourke, Ryan, Steyer and Williamson with <1%

[19] Gabbard, Steyer, and Yang with 1%

[1] "New Jersey moves primary elections to July". The Hill. April 8, 2020.

[FHQ-primarydates-2] Putnam, Josh. "The 2020 Presidential Primary Calendar". Frontloading HQ. Retrieved June 23, 2019.

[3] Johnson, Brent (April 8, 2020). "Murphy officially postpones N.J.'s primary elections to July due to coronavirus outbreak". NJ.com. NJ Advance Media.

[4] "Democratic Timing Penalties and Bonuses". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.

[5] "The Math Behind the Democratic Delegate Allocation - 2020". The Green Papers. November 24, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.

[NJ-GP-6] 1 2 "2020 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions: New Jersey Democrat". The Green Papers. Retrieved July 13, 2020.

[7] Brent Johnson (May 15, 2020). "N.J.'s July 7 primary election will be mostly vote-by-mail during coronavirus pandemic, Murphy says". NJ.com . Retrieved May 25, 2020.

[8] "Primary Election Candidates: U.S. President" (PDF). Retrieved June 23, 2023.

[10] FiveThirtyEight

[12] FDU

[14] Emerson College

[16] Monmouth University

[18] Change Research Archived 2019-08-27 at the Wayback Machine

[NJ-NPR-results-20] 1 2 "Official Election Results -AMENDED-: Candidates for Democratic District Delegates/Alternate District Delegates For- July 7, 2020- PRIMARY ELECTION" (PDF). New Jersey Division of Elections. Retrieved September 20, 2020.

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