1916 United States presidential election in New Jersey

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1916 United States presidential election in New Jersey

← 1912 November 7, 1916 1920 →
  Governor Charles Evans Hughes (cropped).jpg Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Harris & Ewing bw photo portrait, 1919 (cropped 3x4).jpg
Nominee Charles Evans Hughes Woodrow Wilson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New Jersey
Running mate Charles W. Fairbanks Thomas R. Marshall
Electoral vote 14 0
Popular vote 268,982 211,018
Percentage 54.40% 42.68%

New Jersey Presidential Election Results 1916.svg
County Results

President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

The 1916 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 7, 1916. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1916 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 Republican nominees, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes of New York and his running mate, former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana. Hughes and Fairbanks defeated the Democratic nominees, incumbent President Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey and his running mate incumbent Vice President Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana.

Hughes carried New Jersey decisively with 54.40 percent of the vote to Wilson's 42.68 percent, a victory margin of 11.72 points.[1] Coming in a distant third was Socialist candidate Allan L. Benson, who took 2.10 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. However, in 1912, Woodrow Wilson, then the sitting Governor of New Jersey, had won the state's electoral votes, but with a plurality of only 41 percent in a 3-way race against a split Republican field, with former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt running as a third party candidate against incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft. However, with the Republican base re-united behind Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, Wilson lost his home state to the GOP by a decisive 12-point margin in a head-to-head match-up, despite having served as the state's governor.

On the county level map, reflecting his comfortable victory, Hughes carried 17 of the state's 21 counties, breaking sixty percent of the vote in three.

Wilson's only significant win was urban Hudson County, while he also won 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 1916 – and Sussex only for William McKinley in 1896 – yet Wilson would prove the last Democrat to win Sussex County until Lyndon Johnson in 1964.[3]

Despite being Wilson's home state, New Jersey registered as the second most Republican state in the nation in terms of vote share after Vermont and the fourth most Republican state in the nation in terms of margin, the state being about 15 points more Republican than the national average.[4] Woodrow Wilson is one of 4 presidents to lose his home state on a successful presidential bid. The others are James K. Polk, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump

Results[]

1916 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Charles Evans Hughes 268,982 54.40% 14
Democratic Woodrow Wilson (incumbent) 211,018 42.68% 0
Socialist Allan L. Benson 10,405 2.10% 0
Prohibition Frank Hanly 3,182 0.64% 0
Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer 855 0.17% 0
Totals 494,442 100.0% 14

Results by county[]

County Charles Evans Hughes
Republican
Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Democratic
Allan Louis Benson
Socialist
James Franklin Hanly
Prohibition
Arthur Elmer Reimer
Socialist Labor
Margin Total votes cast[5]
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Atlantic 9,713 62.88% 5,467 35.39% 122 0.79% 133 0.86% 12 0.08% 4,246 27.49% 15,447
Bergen 18,494 60.05% 11,530 37.44% 595 1.93% 113 0.37% 65 0.21% 6,964 22.61% 30,797
Burlington 8,803 56.36% 6,535 41.84% 115 0.74% 158 1.01% 9 0.06% 2,268 14.52% 15,620
Camden 18,318 54.17% 14,010 41.43% 1,101 3.26% 350 1.03% 38 0.11% 4,308 12.74% 33,817
Cape May 2,904 56.85% 2,097 41.05% 37 0.72% 66 1.29% 4 0.08% 807 15.80% 5,108
Cumberland 5,692 52.14% 4,573 41.89% 308 2.82% 323 2.96% 21 0.19% 1,119 10.25% 10,917
Essex 54,167 59.24% 34,596 37.84% 2,280 2.49% 184 0.20% 212 0.23% 19,571 21.40% 91,439
Gloucester 5,352 54.82% 3,745 38.36% 118 1.21% 538 5.51% 9 0.09% 1,607 16.46% 9,762
Hudson 42,518 47.66% 44,663 50.07% 1,811 2.03% 73 0.08% 140 0.16% -2,145 -2.40% 89,205
Hunterdon 3,408 42.69% 4,462 55.89% 45 0.56% 65 0.81% 4 0.05% -1,054 -13.20% 7,984
Mercer 14,213 55.75% 10,621 41.66% 460 1.80% 154 0.60% 45 0.18% 3,592 14.09% 25,493
Middlesex 11,851 53.51% 9,975 45.04% 185 0.84% 103 0.47% 32 0.14% 1,876 8.47% 22,146
Monmouth 11,624 51.46% 10,729 47.49% 103 0.46% 120 0.53% 14 0.06% 895 3.96% 22,590
Morris 8,530 54.23% 6,798 43.22% 214 1.36% 172 1.09% 14 0.09% 1,732 11.01% 15,728
Ocean 3,386 61.26% 2,076 37.56% 31 0.56% 28 0.51% 6 0.11% 1,310 23.70% 5,527
Passaic 18,754 55.32% 13,340 39.35% 1,561 4.60% 128 0.38% 121 0.36% 5,414 15.97% 33,904
Salem 4,080 53.77% 3,353 44.19% 68 0.90% 84 1.11% 3 0.04% 727 9.58% 7,588
Somerset 4,707 55.70% 3,653 43.23% 34 0.40% 50 0.59% 7 0.08% 1,054 12.47% 8,451
Sussex 2,461 43.38% 3,093 54.52% 70 1.23% 42 0.74% 7 0.12% -632 -11.14% 5,673
Union 16,705 59.21% 10,328 36.61% 1,040 3.69% 97 0.34% 44 0.16% 6,377 22.60% 28,214
Warren 3,302 36.56% 5,374 59.50% 107 1.18% 201 2.23% 48 0.53% -2,072 -22.94% 9,032
Totals 268,982 54.40% 211,018 42.68% 10,405 2.10% 3,182 0.64% 855 0.17% 57,964 11.72% 494,442

See also[]

  • Presidency of Woodrow Wilson
  • United States presidential elections in New Jersey

References[]

  1. ^ "1916 Presidential General Election Results - New Jersey". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 5 February 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. ^ "1916 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  5. ^ New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety Division of Elections; Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey 1917 pp. 574-602


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