Over 80 million Americans voted this year before Election Day, Save Jerseyans, and for the first time since it’s become trendy, Republicans leaned into the process.
In NJ-07, the state’s sole very competitive U.S. House district, incumbent Republican Tom Kean Jr. essentially fought challenger Sue Altman to a draw. Republicans had posted 78,639 early votes at the end of the weekend compared to Democrats’ 82,710. Internal polling in the final weeks of the campaign reportedly showed Kean holding onto a very modest 2-point lead.
In Monmouth County, which leans red, Republican leaders were delighted to see that they were the state’s top in-person early voting county with 130,000 votes cast through Sunday at 6:00 p.m. “We set a record here in Monmouth County and what is remarkable is that over 21,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted during the 9 day early voting period,” opined Monmouth County Republican Chairman and Sheriff Shaun Golden who added that his team intended to help deliver a victory for President Trump and the GOP ticket that’s “too big to rig.”
Meanwhile, in purple Gloucester County (which voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020), saw Republicans win early voting with 36% (14,142) to Democrats’ 34% (13,446) and unaffiliateds bringing up the rear at 28% (11,119).
The overall picture for New Jersey Republicans was encouraging heading into Election Day with Democrats running about 330,000 early votes ahead of Republicans, an edge that’s hundreds of thousands of ballots smaller than it was in 2020. Republicans typically run far stronger on Election Day but struggle, as was very evident in the 2023 legislative races, under the weight of insurmountable mail-in ballot margins.
How all of this translates when the dust settles is less clear, but the fact that New Jersey Republicans are finally embracing banking their votes is universally being viewed as a very positive development which – if it becomes a habit – bodes well for competitive races moving forward.
