By Matt Rooney
Republicans are currently going through the process of deciding who will challenge Cory Booker in November.
If one of them is successful?
It’d be more than an upset… it’d be historic, Save Jerseyans.
Only Hawaii (1970) has gone longer without electing a Republican to the United States Senate than the Garden State. In fact, the last New Jersey Republican to win in New Jersey during a Senate contest was Clifford Case in 1972, a whopping 54 years ago. Four years later, Democrat incumbent Harrison Williams rode the post-Watergate wave to obliterate Republican David Norcross by over 22-points – a margin no Democrats has reached in the ensuing decades though a few have come close.
Williams later went down in disgrace, caught up in the Abscam scandal, but as we’re all too aware he wouldn’t be the last Senate Democrat to embarrass his constituents. Voters haven’t punished the Democrats for any of it… at least not to date.
Here’s a complete list of the contests comprising Democrats’ epic run:
| Year | Democratic Candidate % | Republican Candidate % | Approx. Margin (D–R) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Harrison A. Williams — 60.66% | David A. Norcross — 38.05% | +22.61% |
| 1978 | Bill Bradley — 55.32% | Jeff Bell — 43.13% | +12.19% |
| 1982 | Frank Lautenberg — 50.94% | Millicent Fenwick — 47.75% | +3.19% |
| 1984 | Bill Bradley — 64.16% | Mary V. Mochary — 34.88% | +29.28% |
| 1988 | Frank Lautenberg — ~53.6% | Pete Dawkins — ~45.2% | +8.4% |
| 1990 | Bill Bradley — 50.44% | Christine Todd Whitman — 47.40% | +3.04% |
| 1994 | Frank Lautenberg — 50.29% | Chuck Haytaian — 47.02% | +3.27% |
| 1996 | Robert Torricelli — 53.12% | Dick Zimmer — 42.93% | +10.19% |
| 2000 | Jon Corzine — 50.11% | Bob Franks — 47.10% | +3.01% |
| 2002 | Frank Lautenberg — 53.88% | Doug Forrester — 43.95% | +9.93% |
| 2006 | Bob Menendez — 53.37% | Thomas Kean Jr. — 44.34% | +9.03% |
| 2008 | Frank Lautenberg — 56.03% | Dick Zimmer — 41.95% | +14.08% |
| 2012 | Bob Menendez — 58.87% | Joe Kyrillos — 39.37% | +19.50% |
| 2014 | Cory Booker — 55.84% | Jeff Bell — 42.33% | +13.51% |
| 2018 | Bob Menendez — 54.01% | Bob Hugin — 42.83% | +11.18% |
| 2020 | Cory Booker — 57.23% | Rik Mehta — 40.92% | +16.31% |
| 2024 | Andy Kim — 53.61% | Curtis Bashaw — 43.99% | +9.62% |
