Why did New Jersey go so strongly for Gore?

[darklordoftech]

The 270towin.com map for 2000 shows New Jersey in dark blue. Why did it go so strongly for Gore?

[Metalhead123]

From what I can tell, Bush failed to win over New Jersey independents and moderates. Also Bill Clinton was still a popular president.

[The Govanah Jake]

Also Gun Control had something to do with it.

[Hydera]

From what I can tell, Bush failed to win over New Jersey independents and moderates. Also Bill Clinton was still a popular president.

This, people liked Bill Clinton and a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two so suburban voters stayed put for gore.

http://www.cbsnews.com/campaign2000results/state/poll_njop-.html


Gore won across all income groups and even 1/4th of conservative voters in the state.

In 2004 it was pretty different because 9/11 made a lot of potential bush voters who stayed out because of the good economy in 2000 to turn out in New Jersey.

[darklordoftech]

a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two

Shouldn't that benefit both candidates equally?

[Metalhead123]

a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two

Shouldn't that benefit both candidates equally?

I think it would hinder them. Having two candidates who are viewed as the same could lead to more votes for a third party or lower turnout than normal.

[RINO Tom]

From what I can tell, Bush failed to win over New Jersey independents and moderates. Also Bill Clinton was still a popular president.

This, people liked Bill Clinton and a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two so suburban voters stayed put for gore.

http://www.cbsnews.com/campaign2000results/state/poll_njop-.html


Gore won across all income groups and even 1/4th of conservative voters in the state.

In 2004 it was pretty different because 9/11 made a lot of potential bush voters who stayed out because of the good economy in 2000 to turn out in New Jersey.

Weird in those polls that Bush did better with Catholics than with Protestants...

[Hydera]

From what I can tell, Bush failed to win over New Jersey independents and moderates. Also Bill Clinton was still a popular president.

This, people liked Bill Clinton and a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two so suburban voters stayed put for gore.

http://www.cbsnews.com/campaign2000results/state/poll_njop-.html


Gore won across all income groups and even 1/4th of conservative voters in the state.

In 2004 it was pretty different because 9/11 made a lot of potential bush voters who stayed out because of the good economy in 2000 to turn out in New Jersey.

Weird in those polls that Bush did better with Catholics than with Protestants...

Lots of black protestants. If you compare white protestants and white catholics, gore did better with white catholics.

That being said, lots of suburban and especially italian american catholics vote republican.

[darklordoftech]

From what I can tell, Bush failed to win over New Jersey independents and moderates. Also Bill Clinton was still a popular president.

This, people liked Bill Clinton and a lot of voters at the time didn't think there was much difference between the two so suburban voters stayed put for gore.

http://www.cbsnews.com/campaign2000results/state/poll_njop-.html


Gore won across all income groups and even 1/4th of conservative voters in the state.

In 2004 it was pretty different because 9/11 made a lot of potential bush voters who stayed out because of the good economy in 2000 to turn out in New Jersey.

Weird in those polls that Bush did better with Catholics than with Protestants...

Maybe because of Bush's stance on abortion?

[RRusso1982]

I can tell you exactly when New Jersey turned into a solid blue state.  After the 1994 Republican Revolution when the party became dominated by Newt Gingrich and Southern conservatives, plus demographic shifts that made the state more Democratic friendly.  Prior to that, New Jersey was a Republican leaning state.  It had gone Republican in every election between 1968 through 1988 and it only narrowly went for Clinton over Bush 41 in 1992 by 2 points.  Clinton won the national popular vote in 1992 by 5.5 points and won NJ by only 2 points, so NJ went R + 3 in 1992.  In 1996, Clinton won NJ over Dole by around 17 points.  Then in 1993 Christie Whitman narrowly won the Governor's race.  Between the Republican Revolution in 1994 and 2008, the only Republican victory was Christie Whitman's squeaker reelection in 1997.  It wasn't until 2009 after Bush was no longer in the front page of the news every day and the Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress by a large margin that NJ voters were willing to at least hear out the Republican candidate.  That is when Chris Christie won in 2009 by about 4 points.

[Schiff for Senate]

New Jersey has been a solid Democratic state since Bill Clinton converted it from a red-leaning state to a blue state. In 1988 Bush won NJ by 13.5%; in 1992 Clinton carried it by 2%; and in 1996 he carried it by a whopping 18%, and Gore went on to win by a similar margin, 16% - largely because socially liberal or moderate Bush '88 / Clinton '96 voters mostly stuck with Gore. To put it another way, Clinton picked up swaths of voters across New Jersey, including those who had supported Bush in 1988 and had previously voted mostly Republican, and most of those voters rarely, if ever, came back to the GOP column as it went from the party of moderate conservatism to the party of radical polarization and far-right radicalism to the cult of Trump it is today.