New Jersey Republicans continued their post-Trump trend of closing the statewide registration gap with Democrats in February.
As of March 1, 2023, Republicans had closed the gap by 1,829 votes. Democrats currently boast a 1,000,366 voters advantage across all 21 counties according to the Division of Elections. Unlike in past months, however, both parties lost raw voters last month (Republicans shed 1,247 registrants while Democrats dropped a much larger number: 3,076). The losses are reportedly attributable to a voting role clean-up in Morris County.
Gaining only 367 more votes in March would officially end the Democrats’ long-standing symbolic one-million plus voter registration advantage. Of course, the GOP would need less than 367 new voters in March if Democrats also lose voters as they’ve done in many recent months.
Democrats naturally still enjoy a significant numerical edge, and Republicans outnumber Democrats in only eight counties: Cape May, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Salem, Sussex and Warren.
Republicans have only won four statewide elections since the 1980s: 1993 and 1997 (Whitman) and 2009 and 2013 (Christie). The Garden State hasn’t voted for a GOP U.S. Senate nominee since before Watergate, and the last Republican presidential nominee to carry New Jersey was George H. W. Bush in 1988.
