1912 United States presidential election in New Jersey

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1912 United States presidential election in New Jersey

← 1908 November 5, 1912 1916 →
 
Nominee Woodrow Wilson Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft
Party Democratic Progressive Republican
Home state New Jersey New York Ohio
Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Hiram Johnson Nicholas M. Butler
Electoral vote 14 0 0
Popular vote 178,289 145,410 88,835
Percentage 41.20% 33.60% 20.53%

County Results

President before election

William Howard Taft
Republican

Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

The 1912 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 5, 1912. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1912 United States presidential election. Voters chose 14 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New Jersey was won by the Democratic nominees, Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey and his running mate Governor Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana. Wilson and Marshall defeated the Progressive Party nominees, former President Theodore Roosevelt of New York and his running mate Governor Hiram Johnson of California, and the Republican nominees, incumbent President William Howard Taft of Ohio and his running mate incumbent Vice President James S. Sherman of New York. Wilson carried New Jersey with a bare plurality of 41.20 percent of the vote to Roosevelt's 33.60 percent, a victory margin of 7.60 percent. Taft came in third place with 20.53 percent.[1] Coming in a distant fourth was Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs, who took 3.69 percent.

Like much of the Northeast, New Jersey in this era was a staunchly Republican state, having not given a majority of the vote to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1892. In his initial 1908 election campaign, Taft had carried New Jersey by a comfortable 57–39 margin. However, in 1912, the Republican Party was split as former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third party candidate against incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft, splitting the Republican voter base, and allowing Wilson to win many states with pluralities. Despite being the sitting Governor of New Jersey, Wilson only managed to earn 41 percent of the vote in his home state, but with the GOP split, this would prove to be enough to win New Jersey's electoral votes. Were Taft and Roosevelt voters united behind a single Republican candidate, the GOP would have received 54.13 percent of the vote. Although it was Wilson's home state and he had served as governor there, the results in 1912 made the state about 6% more Progressive than the nation. Wilson became the only candidate in the 1912 election to carry both his home state (New Jersey) and his birth state (Virginia).

On the county-level map, Wilson carried 17 of the state's 21 counties, although seven with pluralities between forty and fifty percent of the vote, and six with pluralities of less than forty percent. Wilson won majorities only in urban Hudson County and the three rural counties in western North Jersey, Warren, Sussex, and Hunterdon, which had long been non-Yankee Democratic enclaves in the otherwise Republican Northeast.[2] Warren and Hunterdon had never voted Republican as of 1912, and Sussex only for William McKinley in 1896.[3]

As Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party finished a strong second ahead of incumbent Republican Taft in the state, the remaining four counties went to Roosevelt. Roosevelt won urban Essex County along with Ocean County with pluralities between 40 and 50% of the vote, while winning Passaic County and Cumberland County with pluralities of less than 40% of the vote. The latter two counties voted for a non-Republican for the first time since 1856. Taft finished a weak third place in the state for an incumbent president and official Republican nominee, and failed to win a single county in New Jersey, the first of two times that a Republican did so, along with 1964. This was the first time since its first election in 1852 that Ocean County did not vote for a Republican. Monmouth County voted Democratic for the first time since 1884, Burlington since 1876, Camden and Cape May since 1860, Mercer and Atlantic since 1856, and Gloucester for the first time ever.

Results[edit]

1912 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Woodrow Wilson 178,289 41.20% 14
Progressive Theodore Roosevelt 145,410 33.60% 0
Republican William Howard Taft (incumbent) 88,835 20.53% 0
Socialist Eugene V. Debs 15,948 3.69% 0
Prohibition Eugene W. Chafin 2,936 0.68% 0
Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer 1,321 0.31% 0
Totals 432,739 100.0% 14

Results by county[edit]

County Woodrow Wilson
Democratic
William Howard Taft
Republican
Theodore Roosevelt
Progressive
Eugene Debs
Socialist
Eugene Chafin
Prohibition
Arthur Reimer
Socialist Labor
Margin[a] Total votes cast[4]
# % # % # % # % # % # % # %
Atlantic 4,885 34.99% 4,422 31.67% 4,245 30.40% 220 1.58% 153 1.10% 38 0.27% 463[b] 3.32% 13,963
Bergen 9,978 40.12% 5,087 20.46% 8,594 34.56% 947 3.81% 175 0.70% 87 0.35% 1,384 5.57% 24,868
Burlington 5,592 39.93% 3,967 28.33% 3,973 28.37% 220 1.57% 225 1.61% 27 0.19% 1,619 11.56% 14,004
Camden 10,812 36.64% 7,911 26.81% 8,718 29.54% 1,744 5.91% 263 0.89% 63 0.21% 2,094 7.10% 29,511
Cape May 2,124 42.24% 909 18.08% 1,847 36.73% 66 1.31% 73 1.45% 10 0.20% 277 5.51% 5,029
Cumberland 3,858 37.01% 1,895 18.18% 4,097 39.30% 303 2.91% 248 2.38% 23 0.22% -239 -2.29% 10,424
Essex 26,250 32.57% 16,994 21.08% 33,627 41.72% 3,320 4.12% 167 0.21% 243 0.30% -7,377 -9.15% 80,601
Gloucester 3,364 38.29% 1,856 21.12% 3,108 35.37% 206 2.34% 232 2.64% 20 0.23% 256 2.91% 8,786
Hudson 40,517 52.55% 8,763 11.37% 24,156 31.33% 3,169 4.11% 143 0.19% 356 0.46% 16,361 21.22% 77,104
Hunterdon 4,103 53.37% 1,970 25.62% 1,470 19.12% 51 0.66% 74 0.96% 20 0.26% 2,133[b] 27.74% 7,688
Mercer 7,773 36.80% 5,676 26.88% 6,907 32.70% 586 2.77% 105 0.50% 73 0.35% 866 4.10% 21,120
Middlesex 8,186 44.49% 4,743 25.78% 5,061 27.51% 250 1.36% 111 0.60% 48 0.26% 3,125 16.98% 18,399
Monmouth 9,799 48.55% 3,683 18.25% 6,305 31.24% 232 1.15% 126 0.62% 37 0.18% 3,494 17.31% 20,182
Morris 5,628 40.07% 3,329 23.70% 4,440 31.61% 413 2.94% 216 1.54% 20 0.14% 1,188 8.46% 14,046
Ocean 1,858 37.61% 919 18.60% 2,055 41.60% 44 0.89% 46 0.93% 18 0.36% -197 -3.99% 4,940
Passaic 10,810 35.41% 5,349 17.52% 11,701 38.32% 2,374 7.78% 89 0.29% 208 0.68% -891 -2.92% 30,531
Salem 2,745 45.14% 1,803 29.65% 1,374 22.59% 80 1.32% 68 1.12% 11 0.18% 942[b] 15.49% 6,081
Somerset 3,146 42.50% 2,068 27.94% 2,059 27.82% 46 0.62% 66 0.89% 17 0.23% 1,078[b] 14.56% 7,402
Sussex 2,852 53.10% 890 16.57% 1,506 28.04% 49 0.91% 71 1.32% 3 0.06% 1,346 25.06% 5,371
Union 9,695 38.54% 5,421 21.55% 8,429 33.51% 1,484 5.90% 82 0.33% 45 0.18% 1,266 5.03% 25,156
Warren 4,663 55.14% 1,411 16.68% 2,007 23.73% 144 1.70% 203 2.40% 29 0.34% 2,656 31.41% 8,457
Totals 178,289 41.20% 88,835 20.53% 145,410 33.60% 15,948 3.69% 2,936 0.68% 1,321 0.31% 32,879 7.60% 432,739

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Because Roosevelt finished second behind Wilson in New Jersey as a whole, all margins given are Wilson vote minus Roosevelt vote and percentage margins Wilson percentage minus Roosevelt percentage unless otherwise noted.
  2. ^ a b c d In this county where Taft did run second ahead of Roosevelt, margin given is Wilson vote minus Taft vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Taft percentage.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1912 Presidential General Election Results – New Jersey". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  2. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 121-134 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  3. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 258-259 ISBN 0786422173
  4. ^ New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Elections; Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey (1913) p. 641