N.J. GOP keeps making gains in voter registration

New Jersey Republicans outpaced Democrats by a more than 2-1 margin on voter registration in 2024, reducing the Democratic voter registration edge to 896,350, down from over 1 million four years ago.

The state has nine more Democrats than it did in January 2021, while there are 184,026 more Republicans since the same starting point.  Republicans have consistently outpaced Democrats in voter registration every month since Joe Biden took office.

According to the New Jersey Division of Elections, the total number of voters increased by 244,598 in 2024, including 37,519 new Democrats, 95,784 new Republicans, and 112,115 new unaffiliated voters.

The surge in Republican registration comes at the start of the campaign to pick a replacement for term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy in November.   Murphy won by eleven percentage points in 2017, but came within three points of losing re-election four in 2021 against Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

Two months ago, Donald Trump held Kamala Harris to a six-point in New Jersey and a margin of 252,498 votes.  Trump lost New Jersey by sixteen points in 2020 and fourteen points in 2016.

In New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, the voter registration edge for the GOP increased from 19,879 to 20,625; in November 2022, when Republican Tom Kean, Jr. unseated two-term Democrat Tom Malinowski, the Republican edge in the new district was 16,801.

In the 8th legislative district, which elected a Republican assemblyman and a Democratic assemblywoman in 2023, the registration edge has flipped.  One year ago, there were 81 more Democrats; now there are 134 more Republicans.

New Jersey’s registration makeup is now 37.6% Democratic, 37% unaffiliated (sometimes called independents), and 24.3% Republican.   The remaining 1.1% is scattered among members of seven minor parties, including two – the Natural Law Party and the Reform Party – which have been defunct for over two decades.