Some states produce presidents. Virginia birthed eight. Ohio churned out seven.
New Jersey is not a proving ground for presidents. With another Presidents’ Day upon us, here’s a short list of candidates who’ve tried, and failed, to run for the highest office in the land for a home in the Garden State:
- Chris Christie (2016 and 2024)
- Cory Booker (2020)
- John Delaney (2020)
- Steve Forbes (1996 and 2000)
- Bill Bradley (2000)
- Robert Meyner (1960)
Chris Christie has the ignominious distinction of being the only New Jersey presidential hopeful to run twice and still fail to carry a single state; Steve Forbes won Delaware and Arizona in 1996.
Plenty of others have harbored presidential ambitions, including Christine Todd Whitman and James McGreevey, but each and every one of them failed to take off or find the right cycle (or simply succumbed to a scandal, the most Jersey thing of all to trip up a once promising political figure).
New Jersey’s only successful presidential candidate, Democrat Governor Woodrow Wilson (who served from March 4, 1913 to March 4, 1921), was a Virginia native, academic elitist, avowed racist, and disastrous leader on the world stage. He’s considered by many to be among the worst presidents in U.S. history, and in recent years his name has been stripped off of buildings by cancellation crusaders. Interestingly, despite getting reelected, Wilson failed to carry New Jersey by 12-points in 1916.
Our track record when New Jerseyans aren’t on the ballot is checkered at best. Abraham Lincoln lost New Jersey in 1864 to George McClellan, the disgraced Union general who would later serve as a one-term governor of the Garden State. We haven’t voted for a Republican for president since 1988.
