In the 1960 presidential battle for New Jersey’s sixteen electoral votes, John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon were separated by just 22,091 votes.
Nixon won 14 of New Jersey’s 21 counties, but Kennedy won 50% compared to Nixon’s 49%.
The pluralities of 60,782 in Hudson, 50,030 in Essex, 33,070 in Middlesex, 27,242 in Mercer, 18,017 in Camden, 10,097 in Passaic, and 1,916 in Cumberland were the ones that led to the Kennedy triumph.
By a majority of 68,804 votes, Nixon prevailed in Bergen County.
By 903,828 votes (66%–34%), Lyndon Johnson won New Jersey in 1964. All 21 counties were won by him.
In 1968, Nixon defeated Humphrey by 61,261 votes (46%–44%) in New Jersey. Nine percent of the vote went to George Wallace.
Kennedy won seven counties, but Humphrey won six of them by smaller margins. Hudson’s plurality was only 33,615 whereas Essex’s was 45,392. Humphrey narrowly prevailed by 6,824 votes in Middlesex and by just 8,705 votes in Camden.
When Nixon ran for reelection in 1972, he won New Jersey by a 62%-37% margin over George McGovern, sweeping all 21 counties.
He won by 60,636 at Middlesex, 48,917 at Hudson, and 36,733 at Camden. Bergen was won by Nixon with 137,303 votes.
Gerald Ford barely won New Jersey in 1976. His margin over the victor, Jimmy Carter, was 65,035 (50 percent to 48 percent).
Four years later, in New Jersey, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter by a margin of 52% to 39%. John Anderson, an independent, won 8%.
With the exception of Hudson, Essex, and Mercer counties, Reagan won every election.
Reagan defeated Walter Mondale by 672,307 votes, or 60%-39%, in his 1984 reelection campaign.
Only Essex County went to Mondale.
In 1988, George H.W. Bush won 422,840 votes in New Jersey, defeating Michael Dukakis (56%–43%). The Hudson plurality for Dukakis was only 14,173 votes. Middlesex and Camden went to Bush.
That was the last time New Jersey’s electoral votes went to the Republicans.
In 1992, Bill Clinton defeated Bush by 69,341 votes (43%–41%), while Ross Perot received 16%.
In 1996, Clinton defeated Bob Dole by 549,251 votes, winning 54% of the vote. Perot took home 9% this time. All but Morris, Somerset, Hunterdon, Sussex, and Warren were won by Clinton.
Al Gore defeated George W. Bush in 2000 by a margin of 56% to 409% in New Jersey. In 2004, John Kerry’s margin was between 53% and 46%.
Both times, Barack Obama won New Jersey with ease, winning 57% in 2008 and 58% in 2012.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton defeated Donald Trump 55%-41% in New Jersey, which she won by 546,345 votes. Joe Biden won New Jersey by a majority of 725,087 votes in 2020, which is 57%-41%.
