NJ Democrats are getting closer to a million-voter registration edge

New Jersey Democrats continue to advance in their pursuit of having one million more Democrats than Republicans within the next year, outpacing Republican voter registration efforts in July by a 2-1 margin.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by 968,422, up from 963,385 last month, according to the State Division of Elections.  The spread has increased from 930,542 since the November 2018 mid-term elections.

Since Donald Trump was elected president, New Jersey has added 216,915 more Democrats and 111,042 more Republicans.

New Jersey now has 2,291,008 Democrats and 1,322,586 Republicans.  An additional 64,979 voters are registered as members of one of seven independent parties.

Voters in New Jersey are identifying with a political party with greater frequency.  The number of unaffiliated voters – often referred to as independents – is now at 2,363,874.  That’s down 152,401 since Trump’s election.

New Jersey is now on track to have more Democrats than unaffiliated voters for the first time in state history.  The gap now stands at 72,866 – down from 442,182 in November 2016.

These numbers could bolster Gov. Phil Murphy’s bid for re-election in 2021.  Despite being a blue state, New Jersey has not re-elected a Democratic governor since 1977; Republicans have done that three times since then.

In 2001, the last time Republicans had a governor and majorities in both houses of the Legislature, 55% of New Jersey voters were not affiliated with either political party.  In eighteen years, that number has dropped to 39.9%.

Democrats made up 25.3% of the voters in 2001, while 19.5% were registered as Republicans. Now Democrats are at 37.5% and Republicans at 21.6%.   In raw numbers — and understanding that we’re not talking about the same voters – as unaffiliateds have lost 15% of their market share since 2001, more 80% of those voters are now registered as Democrats.