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| Turnout | 79.75%[1] ( 0.82%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results
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The1980 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 4, 1980. All 50 states andthe District of Columbia, were part of the1980 United States presidential election. Voters chose seventeen electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.
New Jersey was won by theRepublican nominees, former actor andGovernorRonald Reagan ofCalifornia and formerCIA DirectorGeorge H. W. Bush ofTexas. Reagan and Bush defeated theDemocratic nominees, incumbentPresidentJimmy Carter ofGeorgia and his running mate incumbentVice PresidentWalter Mondale ofMinnesota. Also in the running was former RepublicanCongressmanJohn B. Anderson ofIllinois, who ran as anIndependent with formerAmbassador andGovernorPatrick Lucey ofWisconsin.
Reagan carried New Jersey with 51.97% of the vote to Carter's 38.56%, a margin of 13.42%.[3]
Anderson came in a strong but distant third, with 7.88% of the vote. Reagan won 18 of the state's 21 counties, with Carter only holding onto the 3 most heavily Democratic counties in New Jersey:Essex County,Hudson County, andMercer County. New Jersey weighed in for this election as almost 4% more Republican than the national average.
New Jersey in this era was aswing state with a slight Republican tilt; four years earlier, in1976, the state had narrowly backed RepublicanGerald Ford over Jimmy Carter by a 50–48 margin, as Carter won nationally over Ford by a similarly narrow 50–48 margin. However, in 1980, with Reagan winning convincingly at the national level, the state easily remained in the Republican column. Carter was also hurt in the state by the candidacy of John Anderson, who had been a liberal Republican Congressman and whose campaign appealed strongly to Northeastern liberals and moderates who viewed Reagan as being too extreme and too far to the right,[4] but who were dissatisfied with the status quo under the Carter Administration.[5] Carter bled a substantial amount of support among such liberals and moderates in New Jersey who would likely have leaned Democratic in 1980 but instead voted for Anderson as a protest vote,[6] pushing Carter below 40% and widening Reagan's margin over Carter.
| 1980 United States presidential election in New Jersey | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Ronald Reagan | 1,546,557 | 51.97% | 17 | |
| Democratic | Jimmy Carter (incumbent) | 1,147,364 | 38.56% | 0 | |
| Anderson Alternative | John B. Anderson | 234,632 | 7.88% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Ed Clark | 20,652 | 0.69% | 0 | |
| Citizens | Barry Commoner | 8,203 | 0.28% | 0 | |
| Right to Life | Ellen McCormack | 3,927 | 0.13% | 0 | |
| Middle Class | Kurt Lynen | 3,694 | 0.12% | 0 | |
| Communist | Gus Hall | 2,555 | 0.09% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Andrew Pulley | 2,198 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| Socialist | David McReynolds | 1,973 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| Down with Lawyers | Bill Gahres | 1,718 | 0.06% | 0 | |
| Workers World | Deirdre Griswold | 1,288 | 0.04% | 0 | |
| Independent | Martin Wendelken | 923 | 0.03% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,975,684 | 100.0% | 17 | ||
| Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) | 55%/79% | ||||
| County[7] | Ronald Reagan Republican | Jimmy Carter Democratic | John B. Anderson Anderson Alternative | Ed Clark Libertarian | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Atlantic | 37,973 | 49.83% | 31,286 | 41.06% | 5,582 | 7.33% | 800 | 1.05% | 561 | 0.74% | 6,687 | 8.77% | 76,202 |
| Bergen | 232,043 | 55.89% | 139,474 | 33.60% | 38,242 | 9.21% | 2,661 | 0.64% | 2,737 | 0.66% | 92,569 | 22.29% | 415,157 |
| Burlington | 68,415 | 51.94% | 50,083 | 38.03% | 11,314 | 8.59% | 1,010 | 0.77% | 887 | 0.67% | 18,332 | 13.91% | 131,709 |
| Camden | 87,939 | 47.07% | 80,033 | 42.84% | 16,125 | 8.63% | 1,267 | 0.68% | 1,444 | 0.77% | 7,906 | 4.23% | 186,808 |
| Cape May | 22,729 | 59.08% | 12,708 | 33.03% | 2,550 | 6.63% | 312 | 0.81% | 172 | 0.45% | 10,021 | 26.05% | 38,471 |
| Cumberland | 23,242 | 50.09% | 19,356 | 41.71% | 3,253 | 7.01% | 324 | 0.70% | 228 | 0.49% | 3,886 | 8.38% | 46,403 |
| Essex | 117,222 | 40.82% | 145,281 | 50.59% | 21,271 | 7.41% | 1,192 | 0.42% | 2,200 | 0.77% | -28,059 | -9.77% | 287,166 |
| Gloucester | 40,306 | 51.08% | 29,804 | 37.77% | 7,533 | 9.55% | 851 | 1.08% | 409 | 0.52% | 10,502 | 13.31% | 78,903 |
| Hudson | 91,207 | 45.90% | 95,622 | 48.13% | 8,941 | 4.50% | 840 | 0.42% | 2,078 | 1.05% | -4,415 | -2.23% | 198,688 |
| Hunterdon | 21,403 | 58.75% | 10,029 | 27.53% | 3,610 | 9.91% | 404 | 1.11% | 984 | 2.70% | 11,374 | 31.22% | 36,430 |
| Mercer | 53,450 | 41.57% | 60,888 | 47.35% | 12,117 | 9.42% | 1,153 | 0.90% | 974 | 0.76% | -7,438 | -5.78% | 128,582 |
| Middlesex | 122,354 | 50.73% | 97,304 | 40.34% | 17,463 | 7.24% | 1,787 | 0.74% | 2,298 | 0.95% | 25,050 | 10.39% | 241,206 |
| Monmouth | 120,173 | 56.69% | 71,328 | 33.65% | 17,444 | 8.23% | 1,696 | 0.80% | 1,330 | 0.63% | 48,845 | 23.04% | 211,971 |
| Morris | 105,260 | 60.63% | 48,965 | 28.20% | 17,181 | 9.90% | 1,375 | 0.79% | 823 | 0.47% | 56,295 | 32.43% | 173,604 |
| Ocean | 98,433 | 62.47% | 46,923 | 29.78% | 10,073 | 6.39% | 1,165 | 0.74% | 974 | 0.62% | 51,510 | 32.69% | 157,568 |
| Passaic | 82,531 | 51.92% | 61,486 | 38.68% | 9,385 | 5.90% | 904 | 0.57% | 4,645 | 2.92% | 21,045 | 13.24% | 158,951 |
| Salem | 13,000 | 51.03% | 10,209 | 40.08% | 1,800 | 7.07% | 265 | 1.04% | 200 | 0.79% | 2,791 | 10.95% | 25,474 |
| Somerset | 52,591 | 57.21% | 29,470 | 32.06% | 8,346 | 9.08% | 599 | 0.65% | 922 | 1.00% | 23,121 | 25.15% | 91,928 |
| Sussex | 27,063 | 63.94% | 10,531 | 24.88% | 3,988 | 9.42% | 518 | 1.22% | 227 | 0.54% | 16,532 | 39.06% | 42,327 |
| Union | 112,288 | 51.66% | 86,074 | 39.60% | 15,586 | 7.17% | 1,157 | 0.53% | 2,234 | 1.03% | 26,214 | 12.06% | 217,339 |
| Warren | 16,935 | 54.99% | 10,510 | 34.13% | 2,828 | 9.18% | 372 | 1.21% | 152 | 0.49% | 6,425 | 20.86% | 30,797 |
| Totals | 1,546,557 | 51.97% | 1,147,364 | 38.56% | 234,632 | 7.88% | 20,652 | 0.69% | 26,479 | 0.89% | 399,193 | 13.41% | 2,975,684 |
State and district results of the1980 United States presidential election | ||
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