2000 United States presidential election in New Jersey

2000 United States presidential election in New Jersey

← 1996 November 7, 2000 2004 →
 
Nominee Al Gore George W. Bush
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Tennessee Texas
Running mate Joe Lieberman Dick Cheney
Electoral vote 15 0
Popular vote 1,788,850 1,284,173
Percentage 56.13% 40.29%

County Results

President before election

Bill Clinton
Democratic

Elected President

George W. Bush
Republican

In 2000, the United States presidential election in New Jersey, along with every U.S. state and Washington, D.C., took place on November 7, 2000 as part of the 2000 United States presidential election. The major party candidates were Democratic Vice President Al Gore of the incumbent administration and Republican Governor of Texas George W. Bush, son of the 41st U.S. president, George H. W. Bush. Owing to the indirect system of voting used in U.S. presidential elections, George W. Bush narrowly defeated Gore in Electoral College votes despite that Gore earned a higher percentage of the popular vote. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, the only third-party candidate represented on most states' ballots, came in a distant third.

Although New Jersey had voted for Democrat Bill Clinton in the past two elections (1992 and 1996),[1] it was considered a potential swing state in 2000 because pre-election polling data showed it to be a close race.[2][3] Al Gore won 56 percent of New Jersey’s popular vote, beating out George W. Bush by about a sixteen-point margin, with Gore's biggest margins of victory in Essex County and Hudson County where he won over seventy percent of the vote. Bush won 7 counties with his biggest margins being just over 57 percent in Hunterdon County and Sussex County. Nader got over four percent of the vote in several counties in the northwest of the state, while taking just under three percent statewide.[4] This was also the first presidential election since 1976, in which New Jersey would back the losing candidate as well. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Monmouth County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[5]

Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Bergen County, Burlington County, or Monmouth County, as well as the state of New Jersey since Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Bush became the first Republican to win without Union County since James A. Garfield in 1880. Bush was the first Republican to ever win the Presidency without Passaic and Gloucester counties, and the only Republican to ever win without Salem County.

New Jersey was 1 of 10 states to back George H. W. Bush in 1988 that George W. Bush failed to carry in either of his presidential wins.

  1. ^ "New Jersey Elected Officials Lookup". 270toWin.com. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  2. ^ Jacobs, Andrew (August 19, 2000), "The 2000 Campaign: The Impressions — New Jersey; In a Swing State, Cheers and Doubts", The New York Times, retrieved December 1, 2016
  3. ^ Marks, Peter (July 23, 2000), "July 16–22; Making Margin Calls in a Tightening Race", The New York Times, retrieved December 1, 2016
  4. ^ Leip, Dave (n.d.), "2016 Presidential General Election Results", Atlas of the U.S. Presidential Elections, retrieved December 1, 2016
  5. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

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