1936 United States presidential election in New Jersey

The 1936 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 3, 1936. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1936 United States presidential election. Voters chose 16 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1936 United States presidential election in New Jersey

← 1932 November 3, 1936 1940 →
 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Alf Landon
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York Kansas
Running mate John Nance Garner Frank Knox
Electoral vote 16 0
Popular vote 1,083,850 720,322
Percentage 59.54% 39.57%

County Results

President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

New Jersey was won by the Democratic nominees, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York and his running mate incumbent Vice President John Nance Garner of Texas. Roosevelt and Garner defeated the Republican nominees, Governor Alf Landon of Kansas and his running mate newspaper publisher Frank Knox of Illinois. Roosevelt decisively carried New Jersey with 59.54 percent of the vote to Landon's 39.57 percent, a victory margin of 19.97 percent.[1]

Reflecting the decisiveness of his statewide victory, Roosevelt carried 17 of the New Jersey's 21 counties with majorities of the vote, breaking 60% of the vote in five. This result represented dramatic gains from 1932, when Roosevelt had narrowly carried the state by less than 2 points while winning only four counties in the state. In 1932, Roosevelt had won majorities in populous Middlesex County and rural Warren County, along with a plurality win in Passaic County, but much of Roosevelt's margin of victory was provided by a landslide win in heavily populated Hudson County. Roosevelt had received more than 70% of the vote in Hudson County, part of the New York City metro area.

In 1936, Roosevelt again broke 70% of the vote in Hudson County, but this time thirteen other counties flipped from voting for Herbert Hoover in 1932 to Roosevelt in 1936, enabling him to win the state with a much more comfortable 20 point margin. In North Jersey, Roosevelt won all but two out of the ten northernmost counties. Besides his landslide win in Hudson County, Roosevelt also received more than 60% of the vote in Middlesex and Mercer Counties and won majorities in seven other counties. Landon won only rural Sussex and Morris counties. Roosevelt decisively swept South Jersey, winning majorities in all seven of the southernmost counties in the state. Landon fared better in Central Jersey, where he won Monmouth and Ocean counties.

New Jersey in the early decades of the 20th century had been a reliably Republican state; prior to FDR's 1936 victory, the state had not given a majority of the vote to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1892, with FDR only winning the state with a bare plurality in 1932. However, in 1936, with the emergence of the New Deal Coalition, FDR made dramatic gains for the Democratic Party in New Jersey that would endure and transform it into a closely divided swing state with only a slight Republican lean, a pattern that would endure for much of the 20th century until New Jersey ultimately became a solidly Democratic state in the 1990s. The 1936 election would be the first of many elections to conform to that pattern, with the results making the state about 4 points more Republican than the nation.

Roosevelt was the first Democratic victor in Cumberland County since James Buchanan in 1856, and the first in Essex County since Grover Cleveland in 1892.[2] He was the first to win Hunterdon County since 1916, and the first to win Bergen, Union, Somerset, Mercer, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May, and Salem counties since 1912.

Results

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1936 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Franklin D. Roosevelt (incumbent) 1,083,850 59.54% 16
Republican Alf Landon 720,322 39.57% 0
National Union William Lemke 9,407 0.52% 0
Socialist Norman Thomas 3,931 0.22% 0
Communist Earl Browder 1,639 0.09% 0
National Prohibition D. Leigh Colvin 926 0.05% 0
Socialist Labor John W. Aiken 362 0.02% 0
Totals 1,820,437 100.0% 16

Results by county

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County Franklin Delano Roosevelt[3]
Democratic
Alfred Mossman Landon[3]
Republican
William Frederick Lemke[3]
National Union
Norman Mattoon Thomas[3]
Socialist
Various candidates[3]
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Atlantic 39,605 61.22% 24,680 38.15% 296 0.46% 47 0.07% 60 0.09% 14,925 23.07% 64,688
Bergen 91,107 50.09% 89,628 49.28% 530 0.29% 461 0.25% 152 0.08% 1,479 0.81% 181,878
Burlington 26,095 57.78% 18,644 41.29% 239 0.53% 103 0.23% 78 0.17% 7,451 16.50% 45,159
Camden 86,300 69.74% 35,874 28.99% 757 0.61% 511 0.41% 300 0.24% 50,426 40.75% 123,742
Cape May 9,363 52.16% 8,531 47.52% 23 0.13% 16 0.09% 19 0.11% 832 4.63% 17,952
Cumberland 20,492 58.06% 14,500 41.09% 74 0.21% 63 0.18% 163 0.46% 5,992 16.98% 35,292
Essex 174,857 54.74% 140,991 44.14% 2,364 0.74% 714 0.22% 515 0.16% 33,866 10.60% 319,441
Gloucester 20,516 56.02% 15,813 43.18% 88 0.24% 70 0.19% 135 0.37% 4,703 12.84% 36,622
Hudson 233,390 77.65% 65,110 21.66% 1,259 0.42% 531 0.18% 269 0.09% 168,280 55.99% 300,559
Hunterdon 9,526 51.75% 8,832 47.98% 1 0.01% 20 0.11% 30 0.16% 694 3.77% 18,409
Mercer 47,702 61.52% 29,283 37.77% 293 0.38% 151 0.19% 105 0.14% 18,419 23.76% 77,534
Middlesex 61,679 64.69% 32,959 34.57% 489 0.51% 92 0.10% 121 0.13% 28,720 30.12% 95,340
Monmouth 38,914 48.18% 41,460 51.33% 228 0.28% 98 0.12% 67 0.08% -2,546 -3.15% 80,767
Morris 24,978 43.11% 32,365 55.86% 300 0.52% 211 0.36% 89 0.15% -7,387 -12.75% 57,943
Ocean 9,889 46.27% 11,293 52.84% 117 0.55% 31 0.15% 42 0.20% -1,404 -6.57% 21,372
Passaic 71,384 58.42% 49,046 40.14% 1,113 0.91% 308 0.25% 339 0.28% 22,338 18.28% 122,190
Salem 11,614 59.86% 7,671 39.54% 31 0.16% 36 0.19% 50 0.26% 3,943 20.32% 19,402
Somerset 15,987 50.14% 15,806 49.57% 15 0.05% 35 0.11% 44 0.14% 181 0.57% 31,887
Sussex 6,862 46.17% 7,945 53.46% 25 0.17% 10 0.07% 19 0.13% -1,083 -7.29% 14,861
Union 70,813 53.61% 59,553 45.08% 1,162 0.88% 363 0.27% 206 0.16% 11,260 8.52% 132,097
Warren 12,476 56.82% 9,437 42.98% 1 0.00% 24 0.11% 19 0.09% 3,039 13.84% 21,957
Totals 1,083,549 59.56% 719,421 39.55% 9,405 0.52% 3,895 0.21% 2,852 0.16% 364,128 20.02% 1,819,122

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "1936 Presidential General Election Results – New Jersey". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  2. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 258-259 ISBN 0786422173
  3. ^ a b c d e Our Campaigns; NJ US President Race, November 03, 1936