The 2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary took place on July 7, 2020, alongside the Delaware primary, as part of the Democratic Party primaries for the 2020 presidential election. It was originally planned for June 2 together with four other primaries, but was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New Jersey primary was a semi-closed primary, with the state awarding 146 delegates, of which 126 were pledged delegates allocated on the basis of the results of the primary.
Former vice president and presumptive nominee Joe Biden won nearly 85% of the vote and almost all delegates. While senator Bernie Sanders closely failed to reach the 15% threshold for statewide delegates, he would have received 9 district delegates according to the final vote count, but for unknown reasons (possibly due to the counting of ballots only being finished in August, while delegates were selected by the state convention in July) the New Jersey Democrats only awarded him 5 delegates.
Procedure New Jersey planned to originally hold its primary elections on June 2, 2020, the same day as that of Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and the District of Columbia, and was the only state on that date to move its primary, as New Jersey is traditionally one of the last states to vote. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced on April 8, 2020, that, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary would be postponed until July 7.
Voting was expected to take place throughout the state from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. In the semi-closed primary, candidates had to meet a threshold of 15 percent at the delegate district or statewide level in order to be considered viable. The 126 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention were allocated proportionally on the basis of the results of the primary. Of these, between 3 and 6 were allocated to each of the state's 20 "delegate districts", each consisting of two legislative districts, and another 14 were allocated to party leaders and elected officials (PLEO delegates), in addition to 28 at-large delegates. Originally planned with 107 delegates, the final number included a 20% bonus of 19 additional delegates on the 70 district and 23 at-large delegates by the Democratic National Committee.
District-level delegates were chosen in the presidential primary with delegate candidates appearing on the ballot. Should presidential candidates have been entitled to more district delegates than delegate candidates presented, a special post-primary caucus at the state convention would have been called on July 18, to designate the additional delegates. The Democratic state committee subsequently convened at the state convention to vote on the 28 at-large and 14 pledged PLEO delegates to send to the Democratic National Convention. The delegation also included 20 unpledged PLEO delegates: 7 members of the Democratic National Committee, 12 members of Congress (both senators and 10 representatives), and the governor Phil Murphy.
On May 15, 2020, the governor signed an executive order declaring that the primary election would become a primarily vote-by-mail election. Democratic and Republican voters automatically received a vote-by-mail ballot while unaffiliated and inactive voters got a vote-by-mail application. Unaffiliated voters had to declare their party in the application and send it in to their respective county board of elections in order to vote and receive their primary election ballot. A limited number of polling stations in each county was available on primary day for those who preferred to vote in person (including with provisional ballots if they were unable to obtain one) and for voters with disabilities. Pledged nationalconvention delegates Type Type Type D1 (LD1, LD3) 3 D8 (LD14, LD15) 5 D15 (LD28, LD29) 6 D2 (LD2, LD9) 3 D9 (LD16, LD17) 4 D16 (LD31, LD33) 6 D3 (LD4, LD5) 4 D10 (LD18, LD19) 3 D17 (LD32, LD36) 5 D4 (LD6, LD7) 4 D11 (LD23, LD24) 3 D18 (LD34, LD35) 6 D5 (LD8, LD12) 3 D12 (LD21, LD27) 4 D19 (LD37, LD38) 6 D6 (LD10, LD30) 3 D13 (LD20, LD22) 4 D20 (LD39, LD40) 5 D7 (LD11, LD13) 4 D14 (LD25, LD26) 3 / At-large 14 / 28Total pledged delegates 126
Candidates The following candidates were on the ballot in New Jersey: Joe Biden Bernie Sanders (withdrawn) There was also an "uncommitted" option.
Polling Polling aggregationSource of poll aggregationDateupdatedDatespolledJoeBidenBernieSandersUndecidedFiveThirtyEightFiveThirtyEight Mar 8, 2020 until Feb 18, 202035.5%30.5%34.0% Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Margin JoeBiden MichaelBloomberg CoryBooker PeteButtigieg KamalaHarris BetoO'Rourke BernieSanders ElizabethWarren Other Undecided Mar 5, 2020 Warren withdraws from the race Mar 4, 2020 Bloomberg withdraws from the race Mar 3, 2020 Super Tuesday Mar 2, 2020 Klobuchar withdraws from the race Mar 1, 2020 Buttigieg withdraws from the race Feb 29, 2020South Carolina primary; Steyer withdraws from the race after close of polls Feb 22, 2020Nevada caucusesFDUFDU Feb 12–16, 2020 357 (RV) – 16% 23% – 10% – – 25% 8% 7% 11% Feb 11, 2020New Hampshire primary; Yang withdraws from the race Feb 3, 2020Iowa caucusesEmerson CollegeEmerson College Jan 16–19, 2020 388 ± 4.9% 28% 9% – 6% – – 25% 15% 16%– Jan 13, 2020 Booker withdraws from the race Dec 3, 2019 Harris withdraws from the race Nov 24, 2019 Bloomberg announces his candidacyMonmouth UniversityMonmouth University Sep 12–16, 2019 713 ± 3.7% 26%– 9% 6% 6% 0% 18% 20% 7% 8%Change ResearchChange Research Aug 16–20, 2019 1176 ± 2.9% 26%– 5% 12% 8% 2% 21% 23% 3% –
Results
2020 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary Candidate Votes % Delegates Joe Biden 814,188 84.92 121 Bernie Sanders (withdrawn) 140,412 14.65 5 Uncommitted 4,162 0.43 Total 958,762100%126
Results by county Biden won every county in New Jersey. As was the case in the 2016 primary, Sanders performed best in the northwestern part of the state. County Biden Biden % Sanders Sanders % Atlantic 24,56286.4% 3,867 13.6% Bergen 84,62084.7% 15,242 15.3% Burlington 54,63188.0% 7,424 12.0% Camden 62,80887.3% 9,111 12.7% Cape May 7,97386.3% 1,264 13.7% Cumberland 11,59087.8% 1,604 12.2% Essex 87,31688.5% 11,292 11.5% Gloucester 30,91185.6% 5,210 14.4% Hudson 57,39282.2% 12,448 17.8% Hunterdon 12,55182.1% 2,740 17.9% Mercer 39,44686.5% 6,131 13.5% Middlesex 70,92783.3% 14,218 16.7% Monmouth 49,11684.1% 9,284 15.9% Morris 41,60982.4% 8,904 17.6% Ocean 35,52085.6% 5,996 14.4% Passaic 29,14882.9% 6,030 17.1% Salem 5,08684.6% 928 15.4% Somerset 32,24483.8% 6,250 16.2% Sussex 8,89177.6% 2,564 22.4% Union 60,03588.0% 8,150 12.0% Warren 7,31781.3% 1,679 18.7%Total 813,693 85.3% 140,336 14.7%
See also 2020 New Jersey Republican presidential primary
Notes
References
External links The Green Papers delegate allocation summary New Jersey Democratic State Committee draft delegate selection plan