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| Turnout | 91.06%[1] ( 3.47%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results
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The1960 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 8, 1960. All 50 states were part of the1960 United States presidential election. New Jersey voters chose 16 electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.
New Jersey was won by theDemocratic nominees,SenatorJohn F. Kennedy ofMassachusetts and his running mateSenate Majority LeaderLyndon B. Johnson ofTexas. Kennedy and Johnson defeated theRepublican nominees,Vice PresidentRichard Nixon ofCalifornia and his running mate AmbassadorHenry Cabot Lodge Jr. ofMassachusetts.
Kennedy carried New Jersey with 49.96% of the vote to Nixon's 49.16%, a margin of 0.80%.[2] Kennedy managed to narrowly win the state despite winning only seven counties to Nixon's 14. However, Kennedy managed to rack up large margins decisively winning some of the most heavily populated counties in the state, while keeping the results very close in those heavily populated counties that he lost. As the first Roman Catholic nominee, from an urban Irish immigrant background, John Kennedy appealed strongly to working-class Catholics and other urban ethnic immigrant groups,[3] who turned out in record numbers to support him. Thus Kennedy's support base was condensed into mostly heavily populated urban areas.
New Jersey in this era was usually aswing state with a slight Republican lean. But in 1960, excitement among the many Catholic and other ethnic immigrant communities that populated New Jersey's cities for the historic candidacy of John F. Kennedy led to record turnout to elect the first Catholic president, thus narrowly delivering the state to Kennedy.[4]The Great Migration also helped Kennedy, who clearly won the state's African-American voters.[5] As Kennedy eked out a razor-thin victory nationally to win the presidency, New Jersey voted basically how the nation voted. But under the unique circumstances that made Kennedy popular inNortheastern states, New Jersey's results in 1960 made it about .18% more Democratic than the national average. This was also the last election until fellow Democratic candidate fromMassachusettsJohn Kerry did so in2004, when a Northern Democrat won New Jersey, as the next three Democratic presidential candidates to carry the state were all from theSouth (Lyndon B. Johnson was fromTexas,Bill Clinton fromArkansas, andAl Gore fromTennessee), even though New Jersey is a northern state. This was also the first time since1904 that New Jersey voted more Democratic than the rest of the nation. This is the last time a Democrat won without Burlington, Gloucester, and Atlantic counties. This is the most recent election in which the statewide winning candidate did not carryUnion County.
No candidates ran in the Democratic primary. Unpledged at-large delegates were elected.[6]
GovernorRobert B. Meyner wanted to lead an unpledged state delegation tothe convention to support him as afavorite son.[7] Kennedy opted to allow him to do this, and therefore did not compete in New Jersey. Kennedy did so because he was confident that Meyner lacked national appeal, and thus, if convention voting went into multiple rounds, Kennedy would be able to secure the backing of New Jersey delegates after the first round.[7]
No candidates ran in the Republican primary. Unpledged at-large delegates were elected.[6]
| 1960 United States presidential election in New Jersey | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | John F. Kennedy | 1,385,415 | 49.96% | 16 | |
| Republican | Richard Nixon | 1,363,324 | 49.16% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Farrell Dobbs | 11,402 | 0.41% | 0 | |
| Conservative | J. Bracken Lee | 8,708 | 0.31% | 0 | |
| Socialist Labor | Eric Hass | 4,262 | 0.15% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,773,111 | 100.0% | 16 | ||
| Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) | 71%/90% | ||||
| County | John F. Kennedy Democratic | Richard Nixon Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Atlantic | 36,129 | 46.94% | 39,158 | 50.88% | 1,682 | 2.19% | -3,029 | -3.94% | 76,969 |
| Bergen | 156,165 | 40.90% | 224,969 | 58.92% | 674 | 0.18% | -68,804 | -18.02% | 381,808 |
| Burlington | 39,321 | 48.22% | 42,112 | 51.65% | 106 | 0.13% | -2,791 | -3.43% | 81,539 |
| Camden | 102,083 | 54.73% | 84,066 | 45.07% | 366 | 0.20% | 18,017 | 9.66% | 186,515 |
| Cape May | 10,137 | 38.66% | 16,076 | 61.31% | 9 | 0.03% | -5,939 | -22.65% | 26,222 |
| Cumberland | 23,199 | 52.12% | 21,283 | 47.81% | 30 | 0.07% | 1,916 | 4.31% | 44,512 |
| Essex | 217,878 | 55.35% | 167,848 | 42.64% | 7,897 | 2.01% | 50,030 | 12.71% | 393,623 |
| Gloucester | 29,752 | 47.79% | 32,474 | 52.16% | 33 | 0.05% | -2,722 | -4.37% | 62,259 |
| Hudson | 174,754 | 59.99% | 113,972 | 39.13% | 2,566 | 0.88% | 60,782 | 20.86% | 291,292 |
| Hunterdon | 8,863 | 35.84% | 15,842 | 64.06% | 26 | 0.11% | -6,979 | -28.22% | 24,731 |
| Mercer | 74,166 | 61.16% | 46,924 | 38.69% | 179 | 0.15% | 27,242 | 22.47% | 121,269 |
| Middlesex | 116,095 | 58.18% | 83,025 | 41.60% | 436 | 0.22% | 33,070 | 16.58% | 199,556 |
| Monmouth | 62,434 | 43.34% | 81,382 | 56.49% | 244 | 0.17% | -18,948 | -13.15% | 144,060 |
| Morris | 42,698 | 36.22% | 75,039 | 63.66% | 146 | 0.12% | -32,341 | -27.44% | 117,883 |
| Ocean | 20,113 | 38.75% | 31,430 | 60.56% | 355 | 0.68% | -11,317 | -21.81% | 51,898 |
| Passaic | 90,950 | 50.70% | 80,853 | 45.07% | 7,599 | 4.24% | 10,097 | 5.63% | 179,402 |
| Salem | 12,394 | 46.58% | 14,192 | 53.34% | 21 | 0.08% | -1,798 | -6.76% | 26,607 |
| Somerset | 28,489 | 43.92% | 36,200 | 55.81% | 174 | 0.27% | -7,711 | -11.89% | 64,863 |
| Sussex | 7,269 | 30.75% | 16,362 | 69.21% | 11 | 0.05% | -9,093 | -38.46% | 23,642 |
| Union | 119,986 | 48.97% | 123,224 | 50.29% | 1,798 | 0.73% | -3,238 | -1.32% | 245,008 |
| Warren | 12,540 | 42.58% | 16,893 | 57.36% | 20 | 0.07% | -4,353 | -14.78% | 29,453 |
| Totals | 1,385,415 | 49.96% | 1,363,324 | 49.16% | 24,372 | 0.88% | 22,091 | 0.80% | 2,773,111 |
In urbanHudson County, home toBayonne,Jersey City, andHoboken, and part of theNew York City area where Kennedy did very well, Kennedy won countywide by a decisive 60–39 margin. This represented a major shift from1956, when RepublicanDwight Eisenhower had won Hudson County by 20 points. InMercer County, home to the state capital ofTrenton, Kennedy received his largest share of the vote, winning 61–39.
Essex County, home toNewark, had long been Republican-leaning, last voting Democratic in 1936. However Kennedy won the heavily populated county by a decisive 55–42 margin, the start of a re-alignment of the county; by the end of the 1960s, Essex County would be the most Democratic county in New Jersey. Kennedy also won heavily populatedMiddlesex County by a 58–41 margin. In equally heavily populated Union County, Nixon won, but only by a razor-thin 50–49 margin. This is the last time that Union County voted for the statewide loser, the longest active bellwether streak in the state. InPassaic County, Kennedy won by a 51–45 margin. InCamden County, Kennedy won 55–45.
Nixon was able to keep the race close statewide by winning several fairly populated suburban counties, likeMonmouth County andMorris County, along with many rural counties; overall his biggest prize was heavily populatedBergen County, which went to Nixon by a 59–41 margin. Nixon's strongest county by vote share was ruralSussex County, where he received 69% of the vote to Kennedy's 31%.
State and district results of the1960 United States presidential election | ||
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