In New Jersey, new GOP registration outpaces Dems, but just slightly

New Jersey added 14,744 new Republicans and 11,043 new Democrats in June, reducing the Democratic voter registration edge by 3,701 since the day before the June primary election.

The state had reached a milestone mark of one million more Democrats than Republicans in July 2020,  when the Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden presidential election spurred a huge number of new registered voters, but that lead disappeared in April 2023.

The registration advantage for Democrats remains substantial, with 992,503 more Democrats than Republicans.

Democrats still have a substantial registration edge of 992,503, down from 996,204 just before the primary.  There are 172,283 more Democrats than unaffiliated voters (sometimes called independents); that happened for the first time in 2020.

Republican registration was boosted by several competitive legislative primaries last month: the GOP picked up 718 new Republicans in the 3rd district, 525 in the 4th district, 879 in the 24th, and 1,265 in the 26th.

In Hudson County, where there were contests for county executive and nine county commissioner seats, 2,754 new Democrats were added to the voter rolls between the day before the primary and the end of June.  Democrats added 1,562 new voters in Middlesex County.

Voter registration in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district – one of the most closely watched in the nation in 2024 – has moved just slightly in favor of the GOP.  Since the November 2022 election, the 7th has added 3,200 more Republicans and 2,789 more Democrats; unaffiliated voters have decreased by 21,220.

In total, New Jersey has 6,558,212 registered voters, up 8,111 since June 6.

New Jersey has 80,447 voters who pro-actively registered with one of seven recognized non-major parties, down 267 from just before the primary.  Any voter registered with an independent party on primary day would have been ineligible to vote on June 6.  Two of the independent parties, Reform and Natural Law, have been defunct since 2004, but New Jersey has no statutory means to remove them from the rolls.

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 party.  In roughly 22 years, that number has dropped to 36%.

Democrats comprised 25.3% of the voters in 2001, while 19.5% were registered as Republicans. Now Democrats are at 39% and Republicans at 24%.