New Jersey added 9,598 new registered voters in June, with Democratic registrations exceeding Republican registrations by a 3-1 margin, following the New Jersey Division of Elections’ first official snapshot of the electorate, which showed thousands of previously unaffiliated voters registering with a political party to cast ballots in New Jersey’s closed primary elections.
That puts the Democratic registration edge at 854,859 – less than the 1 million-voter advantage Democrats first claimed in June 2020 and later lost in mid-2023, but still a significant number.
The state now has 6,697,965 registered voters, up from 6,654,619 on January 1, an increase of a little more than one-half of one percent. New Jersey has 2,531,674 Democrats, 1,687,440 Republicans, and 2,569,753 unaffiliated voters; the remaining 1% are members of minor political parties, including two that have been defunct for over two decades.
The overall partisan balance shifted modestly. Democrats now account for 38.4% of New Jersey’s registered voters, up from 38.0% before the primary; Republicans hold 25.2%, up from 25.1%; and unaffiliated voters fell to 35.3%, down from 35.8%.
Since June 1, the day before the primary election, Democrats added 24,404 new voters and Republicans picked up 9,018.
More than half of the Democratic gains came in the 7th and 12th congressional districts, where higher turnout was fueled by significant spending and competition. Democrats gained 4,589 new voters in NJ-7 and 8,314 in the 12th since January 1.
In the 9th district, where there was a hotly contested GOP House primary, Republican registration went up by 841. Democrats added 2,226 members in the same district, where Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) was unopposed in the primary.
The overall partisan balance shifted modestly. Democrats now account for 38.4% of New Jersey’s registered voters, up from 38.0% before the primary; Republicans hold 25.2%, up from 25.1%; and unaffiliated voters fell to 35.3%, down from 35.8%.
The effects of the primary were most evident in the state’s most hotly contested congressional districts.
In the 7th district, where four Democrats competed for the right to challenge Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), Democrats added 2,766 voters during the month, compared to 1,012 for Republicans. The number of unaffiliated voters dropped by 3,053. Republicans still maintain a registration edge, with 218,371 voters to the Democrats’ 201,175, while 210,235 voters remain unaffiliated.
A similar pattern emerged in the neighboring 12th District, where Democrats waged another highly competitive and expensive primary to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing); the winner there was Adam Hamawy, a former U.S. Army combat surgeon. Democrats added 6,048 voters there during the month, by far the largest increase of any congressional district in the state. Republican registration rose by 528, while the number of unaffiliated voters fell by 5,664, the biggest decline statewide.
In the 9th District, Democratic registration increased by 1,847 voters, compared to 669 new Republican registrants, while unaffiliated registration fell by 1,841 — in line with the broader pattern seen in other competitive districts, not an exception to it. Statewide, the largest Republican registration gain came in the 4th District, where GOP rolls grew by 1,804.
Democrats added 1,765 voters in the 8th district and 1,931 in the 2nd; both districts had contested Democratic congressional primaries.
These numbers do not reflect voters who opted to change their party affiliation, independents who cast vote-by-mail ballots, or voted early at in-person polling locations before Election Day.
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