1928 United States presidential election in New Jersey

← 1924 November 6, 1928 1932 →
Turnout	87.32%[1]
Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith Party Republican Democratic Home state California New York Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson Electoral vote 14 0 Popular vote 926,050 616,517 Percentage 59.77% 39.79%
County Results Hoover   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Smith   60–70%
President before election Calvin Coolidge Republican Elected President Herbert Hoover Republican

The1928 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 6, 1928. All contemporary 48 states were part of the1928 United States presidential election. Voters chose 14 electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.

New Jersey was won by theRepublican nominees, formerSecretary of CommerceHerbert Hoover ofCalifornia and his running mateSenate Majority LeaderCharles Curtis ofKansas. Hoover and Curtis defeated theDemocratic nominees,GovernorAlfred E. Smith ofNew York and his running mateSenatorJoseph Taylor Robinson ofArkansas.

Hoover carried New Jersey with 59.77 percent of the vote to Smith's 39.79 percent, a victory margin of 19.98 percentage points.^[2] Finishing in a distant third was theSocialist Party candidateNorman Thomas, with only 0.32 percent.

New Jersey in this era was a staunchly Republican state, having not given a majority of the vote to a Democratic presidential candidate since1892. As Herbert Hoover was winning a third consecutive nationwide Republican landslide amidst the economic boom and social good feelings of theRoaring Twenties under popular Republican leadership, New Jersey easily remained in the Republican column.

However Smith for his part did make dramatic gains for the Democratic Party in New Jersey, laying the groundwork for ultimately turning the state Democratic just four years later in1932. In1920, RepublicanWarren G. Harding had carried the state over DemocratJames M. Cox by a massive 68–28 margin. In1924, southern DemocratJohn W. Davis had received only 27 percent of the vote in the state to RepublicanCalvin Coolidge's 62 percent. Even as Hoover won a third nationwide Republican landslide, New Jersey swung 15 points toward the Democrats over the previous 1920s GOP performances in the state, with Smith taking nearly 40 percent of the statewide vote.

On the county level map, reflecting the decisiveness of his victory, Hoover won 20 of the state's 21 counties. Despite losing ground overall at the state level, Hoover made gains in the western parts of the state where the reaction to Catholicism was hostility.^[3] His strongest county win was in ruralSalem County by theDelaware border, where he broke 80% of the vote, a dramatic improvement over the sixty percent vote shares won in that county by Republicans in 1920 and 1924.

However, Al Smith, a New York City native, and Roman Catholic ofIrish,Italian andGerman immigrant heritage, appealed greatly to urban areas populated by ethnic immigrant communities, laying the groundwork for a new urban Democratic coalition. Urban parts of New Jersey, particularly inNorth Jersey which shared close ties with New York City, swung in Smith's favor.Essex County, home toNewark, swung Democratic, as didMiddlesex,Passaic,Union,Bergen, andMercer counties.

Nevertheless, by far the greatest Democratic swing occurred in heavily populatedHudson County, part of theNew York City metro area, and populated by many urban ethnic Catholic immigrant communities. Despite losing every other county in the state, Al Smith won Hudson County with a commanding majority of more than 60% of the vote. This mirrored the results in the nearby 5 boroughs of New York City right across theHudson River, all of which swung from voting Republican in1920 and1924 to voting decisively Democratic in1928.

While New Jersey remained Republican in 1928, its overall trend was Democratic, going from being 13% more Republican than the nation in 1920 to 10% more Republican than the nation in 1924 to only 2.56% more Republican than the nation in 1928, foreshadowing New Jersey's political future as being a closely dividedswing state with only a slight Republican lean for much of the 20th century until New Jersey ultimately became a solidly Democratic state in the 1990s.

• Presidency of Herbert Hoover
• United States presidential elections in New Jersey

• 1928 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in New Jersey
• 1928 New Jersey elections

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