Cape May, New Jersey’s southernmost county, has been one of the Republican Party’s most reliable sources of votes for more than 160 years. Abraham Lincoln lost the county in 1860 but carried it in 1864, beginning a Republican presidential streak interrupted only twice: by Woodrow Wilson in 1912, when his 41% plurality was enough to prevail in a race split between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, and by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, when he defeated Barry Goldwater by 12 points. Cape May even voted against Franklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his presidential campaigns.
That Republican tradition remains firmly intact. Donald Trump carried Cape May by 19 points in 2016 and 2024 and by 16 points in 2020. Jack Ciattarelli won it by 26 points in the 2021 gubernatorial election and 16 points in 2025.
Democrats controlled the first legislative district Senate seat from 2008 to 2019 with Democrat-turned-Republican Jeff Van Drew; the first legislative district includes all of Cape May County. Polarization eventually caught up with the county beginning in 2019, when Republican Mike Testa (R-Vineland) flipped the 1st district State Senate seat from blue to red, bringing his Assembly running mates, Antwan McClellan (R-Ocean City) and Erik Simonsen (R-Lower), along with him. Rep. Jeff Van Drew switched parties in early 2020 and has since been re-elected three times as a Republican, having previously represented the first legislative district as a Democrat.
Avalon, Ocean City, and Sea Isle City hold municipal elections in May.
Republicans are uncontested in Lower Township Ward 1, Middle Township, North Wildwood, Stone Harbor, Upper Township, and Woodbine.
On the county level, Republicans are uncontested for the Sheriff’s office.
West Cape May, Wildwood, West Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest do not have municipal elections this year.
The City of Cape May’s filing deadline for two nonpartisan City Council seats is August 20.
U.S. Senate
Two-term Sen. Cory Booker has never won Cape May County in any of his elections, but that has not hindered his statewide success. Booker lost Cape May County by 20 points to former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan in 2013, by 16 points to Jeff Bell in 2014, and by 15 points to pharmaceutical executive Rik Mehta in 2020.
Booker faces former Tabernacle Deputy Mayor Justin Murphy in November. Murphy finished second in Cape May County in the Republican primary in June behind former News 12 New Jersey anchor Alex Zdan, who was the Cape May County Republican-endorsed candidate. Given Cape May County’s Republican lean, Murphy has an advantage there.
This year, Murphy will share the ballot with fellow South Jerseyan and Cape May County native Curtis Bashaw, who was the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in 2024 against Andy Kim. Bashaw carried the county by 20 points in 2024 and is running this year for Cape May County commissioner.
2nd Congressional District
Cape May once showed that it could support one of its own until it couldn’t. That’s why national trends matter.
In 1972, Rep. Charles Sandman, Jr. (R-Erma), a four-term congressman from NJ-2, won Cape May with 74%.
In 1973, as Watergate began, Sandman was the Republican candidate for governor. He won Cape May with 64%; Democrat Brendan Byrne won the other 20 counties and 67% of the vote statewide.
In 1974, amid the Watergate wave, after Richard Nixon resigned, Democrat Bill Hughes, a former first assistant Cape May County prosecutor, unseated Sandman in NJ-2 by 16 points. In Cape May, where Sandman lived and had served as a state senator, Hughes outpolled him, 52%-48%. That represented a 26-point drop for Sandman in just two years.
Hughes carried Cape May nine more times until he retired in 1994, and was succeeded by Frank Lobiondo, beginning a 12-election winning streak as a Republican. Lobiondo Retired in 2018.
Four-term Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) is running for re-election to a fourth term overall, but his third as a Republican. Van Drew was first elected to Congress in 2018 as a Democrat before switching parties in 2020 over his opposition to the first Trump impeachment. Van Drew has carried Cape May County in all four of his congressional campaigns. He won the county by six points as a Democrat in 2018. As a Republican, he has carried the county by substantially larger margins, winning by 22 points in 2020, 28 points in 2022, and 27 points in 2024.
This year, Van Drew faces Zach Mullock, the mayor of the City of Cape May, marking the first time he has faced an opponent from his home county. Kamala Harris carried Mullock’s hometown by six points in 2024, while Van Drew carried it by less than half a point. Van Drew carried the city by five points in 2022, while Gov. Mikie Sherrill carried it by eight points in 2025.
Mullock will need to convince some Cape May voters who have voted for Jeff Van Drew in every election for every office he has run for that this year is the time to stop voting for him, which is not an easy ask. Jack Ciattarelli carried the 2nd congressional district by seven points in 2025 while losing the state by 14 points. The last time the district voted for a Democratic statewide candidate was in 2017, when it backed Phil Murphy by one point.
If Mullock loses but puts up a strong showing in Cape May County, it could elevate his prospects as a potential state-level candidate for the Assembly or Senate next year in the 1st legislative district.
County Commissioner
2024 Republican U.S. Senate nominee Curtis Bashaw and former North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello are running for two open county commissioner seats currently held by Will Morey and Melanie Collette. Neither is seeking re-election this year.
Challenging them are Democrats David Temple, a realtor, and Eric Morey, a relative of retiring commissioner Will Morey. Eric Morey was the lone Democratic candidate for county commissioner in 2025, losing to Republicans Andrew Bulakowski and Robert Barr. Barr was once a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party because Van Drew did.
Democrats have not won a countywide race since Jeff Van Drew was elected freeholder in 2000.
Dennis
Republican committeeman Thomas Van Artsdalen and Scott Turner are seeking re-election to another three-year term.
Challenging them are Renee Pettit, a representative on the Middle Township Board of Education, and John Carson, a Democratic County Committee member.
Dennis is the hometown of Rep. Jeff Van Drew, so Pettit and Carson are attempting to replicate Van Drew’s History. In 1991, he was elected as a Democrat to the Dennis Township committee amidst the anti-Florio wave.
Republicans currently control all five seats on the township council.
Dennis is solidly Republican. Donald Trump carried the township by more than 35 points in 2024, while Jack Ciattarelli carried it by 28 points in 2025.
Lower
Republican councilman Joseph Wareham is running for re-election to another four-year term on the township council in Ward 2. He faces Democrat and realtor Elizabeth Blair-Slemmer.
In Ward 3, incumbent Republican councilman Roland Joy Jr. is running for another four-year term. He faces Democrat Michelle Simmons.
Lower Township is a Republican stronghold. Republicans currently control all three ward seats and both at-large seats on the council.
Donald Trump carried the township by 22 points in 2024, while Jack Ciattarelli carried it by 16 points in 2025.