# 1932 United States presidential election in New Jersey

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Elections in New Jersey :
Federal government
U.S. President
1788-89
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
Dem
2008
Rep
Dem
2012
2016
Dem
2020
Dem
2024
Dem
Rep
U.S. Senate
1788
1790
1790 (sp)
1792
1796
1796 (sp)
1798
1799 (sp)
1801 (sp)
1803 (sp)
1804
1808
1809
1809 (sp)
1810
1815
1816 (sp)
1817
1820
1823
1823 (sp)
1826
1826 (sp)
1829
1829 (sp)
1833
1835
1839
1840
1845
1846
1851
1853 (sp)
1857
1858
1863 (sp)
1864
1866 (sp)
1867 (sp)
1869
1875
1877
1881
1883
1886
1889
1893
1895
1899
1901
1902 (sp)
1905
1907
1911
1913
1916
1918
1918 (sp)
1922
1924
1928
1930
1930 (sp)
1932 (sp)
1934
1936
1938 (sp)
1940
1942
1944 (sp)
1948
1954
1958
1960
1964
1966
1970
1972
1976
1978
1982
1984
1988
1990
1994
1996
2000
2002
2006
2008
2012
2013 (sp)
2014
2018
2020
2024
2026
U.S. House of Representatives
1789
1791
1792
1794
1795 (sp AL)
1797
1798
1800
1803
1804
1806
1808 (sp AL)
1808
1810 (sp AL)
1810
1814 (sp 3rd)
1813
1814
1816
1818
1820
1821 (sp AL)
1822
1824
1826
1828
1828 (sp AL)
1830
1832
1834
1836
1836
1838
1840
1842
1844
1846
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1913 (sp 6th)
1914
1916
1920
1924
1926
1928
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1948
1950
1951 (sp 9th)
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1968
1972
1980
1984
1988
1988 (sp 3rd)
1990
1990 (sp 1st)
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2006
2006 (5th)
2006 (12th)
2008
2010
2012
2012 (sp 10th)
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
State government
General elections
2009
2010
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
Gubernatorial elections
1843
1844
1847
1850
1853
1856
1859
1862
1865
1868
1871
1874
1877
1880
1883
1886
1889
1892
1895
1898
1901
1904
1907
1910
1913
1916
1919
1922
1925
1928
1931
1934
1937
1940
1943
1946
1949
1953
1957
1961
1965
1969
1973
1977
1981
1985
1989
1993
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025
Senate elections
1873
1957
1959
1961
1963
1965
1967
1971
1973
1977
1981
1983
1987
1991
1993
1997
2001
2003
2007
2011
2013
2017
2021
2023
General Assembly elections
1985
1987
1989
1991
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023 :
Newark
Mayoral elections
1970
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Jersey City
Mayoral elections
2001
2004
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025 :
Hoboken
Mayoral elections
2005
2017
2021 :
Atlantic City
Mayoral elections
2017
2021 :
vte :
The 1932 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 8, 1932. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1932 United States presidential election. Voters chose 16 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
New Jersey was won by the Democratic nominees, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York and his running mate Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas. Roosevelt and Garner defeated the Republican nominees, incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover of California and incumbent Vice President Charles Curtis of Kansas.
Roosevelt narrowly carried New Jersey with a plurality of 49.48 percent of the vote to Hoover's 47.59 percent, a victory margin of 1.89%. Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas finished in third in New Jersey with 2.64%, more than the 2.23 percent he received nationally. Reflecting a nationwide left-wing backlash against the conservative policies that had been perceived to have culminated in the Great Depression in 1929, Thomas in 1932 received more than 8 times the 0.32 percent he had received in 1928. Combined, socialist parties received 2.89 percent of the vote in New Jersey in 1932, nearly seven times the 0.43 percent of 1928. This left-wing backlash was also evident in Roosevelt's own victory in the state. His 1932 victory, although narrow, represented a nearly 22-point swing in favor of the Democratic Party from the results of 1928, in a state that had long been a Republican stronghold. In 1920 and 1924, the state had voted over 68 percent and over 62 percent Republican respectively, with GOP victory margins over the Democrats of nearly 40 points.
On the county level map, reflecting the closeness of the race, Roosevelt managed to narrowly win the state despite carrying only 4 of the state's 21 counties. The most important component to Roosevelt's victory was his overwhelming victory in heavily populated Hudson County, part of the New York City metro area, and populated by many urban ethnic immigrant communities. Like NYC, the county- along with the state as a whole- had begun trending Democratic in the 1928 election, when the Democrats had nominated Al Smith, a New York City native, and Roman Catholic of Irish, Italian and German immigrant heritage who appealed strongly to ethnic immigrant communities primarily concentrated in urban areas. While Smith in 1928 lost the state overall by a 39.79%–59.77% margin, this still represented a dramatic gain from just four years earlier: in 1924, southern Democrat John W. Davis had received only 27% of the vote in New Jersey. Besides Hudson County, Smith had also made dramatic Democratic gains in other urban parts of North Jersey, including Essex County, home to Newark, along with Middlesex County, Passaic County, Union County, Bergen County, and Mercer County.
Nevertheless, despite losing nationally in a 58–41 GOP landslide, Smith's Democratic gains in urban areas across America, laying the groundwork for a new urban Democratic coalition, were nowhere more evident than in the New York City metro area. After two Republican sweeps of all five boroughs of New York City in 1920 and 1924, Smith won a commanding victory in all five boroughs of NYC in 1928. In New Jersey, this urban popularity in the New York City area spilled over into nearby Hudson County, New Jersey. Despite losing every other county in the state, many by large margins, Smith carried Hudson County with over sixty percent of the vote.
In 1932, with embattled incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover being perceived as failing to adequately address the Great Depression, many urban ethnic working-class voters swung even more strongly to the Democratic Party, and Franklin Roosevelt would receive over seventy percent of the vote in Hudson County, providing much of the raw vote margin by which he managed to eke out a narrow statewide win.
Besides his landslide win in Hudson County, FDR also won majorities in heavily populated Middlesex County and rural Warren County, and won a plurality in fairly populated Passaic County, in the last of which he was the first Democratic victor since James Buchanan in 1856. However, Hoover kept the race close statewide by winning majorities in 17 of the state's 21 counties, although all of them by relatively close margins, failing to break sixty percent in a single county. This marks the first time ever that a Democrat won the presidency without Sussex or Hunterdon counties.

## Results

1932 United States presidential election in New Jersey :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes |
| | Democratic | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 806,630 | 49.48% | 16 |
| | Republican | Herbert Hoover (incumbent) | 775,684 | 47.59% | 0 |
| | Socialist | Norman Thomas | 42,998 | 2.64% | 0 |
| | Communist | William Z. Foster | 2,915 | 0.18% | 0 |
| | Socialist Labor | Verne L. Reynolds | 1,062 | 0.07% | 0 |
| | National Prohibition | William Upshaw | 774 | 0.05% | 0 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | 1,630,063 | 100.0% | 16 |

### Results by county

| County | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Herbert Clark Hoover Republican | Herbert Clark Hoover Republican | Norman Mattoon Thomas Socialist | Norman Mattoon Thomas Socialist | William Z. Foster Communist | William Z. Foster Communist | Verne L. Reynolds Socialist Labor | Verne L. Reynolds Socialist Labor | William D. Upshaw National Prohibition | William D. Upshaw National Prohibition | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Atlantic | 28,071 | 46.58% | 31,264 | 51.88% | 794 | 1.32% | 84 | 0.14% | 18 | 0.03% | 30 | 0.05% | -3,193 | -5.30% | 60,261 |
| Bergen | 73,921 | 44.60% | 86,885 | 52.42% | 4,577 | 2.76% | 244 | 0.15% | 92 | 0.06% | 24 | 0.01% | -12,964 | -7.82% | 165,743 |
| Burlington | 15,824 | 38.95% | 23,623 | 58.14% | 1,070 | 2.63% | 34 | 0.08% | 31 | 0.08% | 47 | 0.12% | -7,799 | -19.20% | 40,629 |
| Camden | 48,825 | 44.45% | 55,856 | 50.85% | 4,825 | 4.39% | 114 | 0.10% | 52 | 0.05% | 175 | 0.16% | -7,031 | -6.40% | 109,847 |
| Cape May | 7,160 | 40.96% | 10,112 | 57.84% | 174 | 1.00% | 4 | 0.02% | 8 | 0.05% | 24 | 0.14% | -2,952 | -16.89% | 17,482 |
| Cumberland | 12,371 | 41.28% | 16,668 | 55.61% | 728 | 2.43% | 33 | 0.11% | 32 | 0.11% | 139 | 0.46% | -4,297 | -14.34% | 29,971 |
| Essex | 132,666 | 45.63% | 149,630 | 51.46% | 7,540 | 2.59% | 546 | 0.19% | 369 | 0.13% | 21 | 0.01% | -16,964 | -5.83% | 290,772 |
| Gloucester | 13,817 | 41.17% | 18,782 | 55.96% | 836 | 2.49% | 17 | 0.05% | 32 | 0.10% | 77 | 0.23% | -4,965 | -14.79% | 33,561 |
| Hudson | 184,676 | 71.85% | 66,937 | 26.04% | 4,923 | 1.92% | 409 | 0.16% | 64 | 0.02% | 10 | 0.00% | 117,739 | 45.81% | 257,019 |
| Hunterdon | 7,531 | 46.13% | 8,476 | 51.92% | 274 | 1.68% | 20 | 0.12% | 5 | 0.03% | 20 | 0.12% | -945 | -5.79% | 16,326 |
| Mercer | 30,284 | 45.28% | 33,715 | 50.41% | 2,606 | 3.90% | 210 | 0.31% | 51 | 0.08% | 13 | 0.02% | -3,431 | -5.13% | 66,879 |
| Middlesex | 45,997 | 56.94% | 32,673 | 40.45% | 1,838 | 2.28% | 217 | 0.27% | 35 | 0.04% | 21 | 0.03% | 13,324 | 16.49% | 80,781 |
| Monmouth | 35,219 | 45.89% | 40,467 | 52.73% | 893 | 1.16% | 80 | 0.10% | 51 | 0.07% | 31 | 0.04% | -5,248 | -6.84% | 76,741 |
| Morris | 20,117 | 37.81% | 31,481 | 59.17% | 1,510 | 2.84% | 52 | 0.10% | 6 | 0.01% | 36 | 0.07% | -11,364 | -21.36% | 53,202 |
| Ocean | 7,508 | 40.67% | 10,513 | 56.95% | 366 | 1.98% | 56 | 0.30% | 8 | 0.04% | 9 | 0.05% | -3,005 | -16.28% | 18,460 |
| Passaic | 54,576 | 49.88% | 49,218 | 44.99% | 5,061 | 4.63% | 398 | 0.36% | 135 | 0.12% | 16 | 0.01% | 5,358 | 4.90% | 109,404 |
| Salem | 7,357 | 42.22% | 9,870 | 56.64% | 147 | 0.84% | 11 | 0.06% | 5 | 0.03% | 35 | 0.20% | -2,513 | -14.42% | 17,425 |
| Somerset | 12,345 | 43.66% | 15,317 | 54.18% | 541 | 1.91% | 57 | 0.20% | 9 | 0.03% | 4 | 0.01% | -2,972 | -10.51% | 28,273 |
| Sussex | 6,136 | 45.76% | 7,130 | 53.18% | 132 | 0.98% | 3 | 0.02% | 1 | 0.01% | 6 | 0.04% | -994 | -7.41% | 13,408 |
| Union | 51,357 | 41.77% | 67,512 | 54.91% | 3,729 | 3.03% | 307 | 0.25% | 49 | 0.04% | 7 | 0.01% | -16,155 | -13.14% | 122,961 |
| Warren | 10,636 | 52.25% | 9,277 | 45.58% | 417 | 2.05% | 12 | 0.06% | 1 | 0.00% | 12 | 0.06% | 1,359 | 6.68% | 20,355 |
| Totals | 806,394 | 49.49% | 775,406 | 47.59% | 42,988 | 2.64% | 2,908 | 0.18% | 1,054 | 0.06% | 757 | 0.05% | 30,988 | 1.90% | 1,629,507 |

#### Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Passaic
* Middlesex
* Warren

## Analysis

Overall, the Northeast was Roosevelt's weakest region in 1932, with all 6 of Hoover's state victories coming from this region amid a nationwide Democratic landslide. However, the overwhelming urban vote in FDR's favor in 1932 helped to narrowly tip New Jersey into the Democratic column, even as much of the state's geographic area remained Republican. A similar pattern was seen in neighboring New York State, which FDR won comfortably despite winning only ten of the state's 62 counties, the overwhelming majority of his victory margin there being provided by landslide wins in the five boroughs of massively populated New York City.
Like most Northeastern states, New Jersey in the early decades of the 20th century had been a reliably Republican state; the state had not given a majority of the vote to a Democratic presidential candidate since 1892. (In 1912, Woodrow Wilson, then the sitting Governor of New Jersey, 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. Wilson lost the state to the GOP by a decisive 12-point margin in a head-to-head match-up in 1916.) The state's strong Republican lean was still evident in FDR's 1932 election campaign: although he narrowly won the state with a 49.5-47.6 plurality over Herbert Hoover, in the midst of his nationwide landslide, that still made the state almost 16 points more Republican than the nation. By 1936, with the emergence of the New Deal Coalition, FDR would make dramatic gains for the Democratic Party in New Jersey that would endure and transform it into a closely divided swing state with only a slight Republican lean, a pattern that would endure for much of the 20th century until New Jersey ultimately became a solidly Democratic state in the 1990s.