Why is Ocean County, NJ so Republican?

[Suburbia]

Why?

Toms River is the largest city in Ocean, and it is like a conservative Newark.

[S019]

It's heavily white (over 93% white) and around 22% of its residents are retirees. Demographics alone can tell a lot, and I'd expect a place with those demographics to vote Republican most of the time.

[Calthrina950]

Ocean County, New Jersey is an ancestrally Republican county, and has only voted Democratic twice in its history-in 1964 for Lyndon B. Johnson (who won every county in the state that year) and in 1996 for Bill Clinton. Clinton carried it with a plurality, so Johnson is the only Democrat in history to have gained an absolute majority there. Ocean County also went for Theodore Roosevelt on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912, the only other time since at least 1900 that it has not voted Republican.

[Roll Roons]

The largest town is actually Lakewood, which includes something like a sixth of the county's population. The town is extremely Republican in part because of its high Orthodox Jewish population.

[Brittain33]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey. It look like a hybrid of northern Wisconsin and a second-tier Florida coastal county with Chasidim.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey.

Adding to this Toms River has always been a working class/industrial city and Ocean County is 90+% white. It's basically a WWC county.

I think it's also a given that Eastern beach/vacation areas are pretty solidly Republican? Thinking of places like Worcester, MD (Ocean City), Sussex, DE (Rehoboth), historically VA Beach, Dare County, NC (Outer Banks). Ocean is Tom's River + beach communities and not much interior NJ to balance it out. Early episodes of Jersey Shore took place in Ocean County.

[Oryxslayer]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey.

Adding to this Toms River has always been a working class/industrial city and Ocean County is 90+% white. It's basically a WWC county.

I think it's also a given that Eastern beach/vacation areas are pretty solidly Republican? Thinking of places like Worcester, MD (Ocean City), Sussex, DE (Rehoboth), historically VA Beach, Dare County, NC (Outer Banks). Ocean is Tom's River + beach communities and not much interior NJ to balance it out. Early episodes of Jersey Shore took place in Ocean County.

VA beach is still GOP, at leas the areas you are referring to. It's the areas in the interior of the county and the minority neighborhoods that flipped it blue. Of course this trend of warm weather GOP beach towns continues on to Florida and then around the gulf in certain areas.



VA Beach, Coast lined red, 2017 gov.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey.

Adding to this Toms River has always been a working class/industrial city and Ocean County is 90+% white. It's basically a WWC county.

I think it's also a given that Eastern beach/vacation areas are pretty solidly Republican? Thinking of places like Worcester, MD (Ocean City), Sussex, DE (Rehoboth), historically VA Beach, Dare County, NC (Outer Banks). Ocean is Tom's River + beach communities and not much interior NJ to balance it out. Early episodes of Jersey Shore took place in Ocean County.

VA beach is still GOP, at leas the areas you are referring to. It's the areas in the interior of the county and the minority neighborhoods that flipped it blue. Of course this trend of warm weather GOP beach towns continues on to Florida and then around the gulf in certain areas.



VA Beach, Coast lined red, 2017 gov.

I was hesitant to include VA Beach in aggregate because it's a lot more dynamic and complicated than the others. Military presence (meaning military + related industry i.e. college educated voters), proximity to Hampton Roads, size, etc.

But yes you are right - the parts of VA Beach that are stereotypical beach vacation areas are still solidly R.

[Tartarus Sauce]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey.

Adding to this Toms River has always been a working class/industrial city and Ocean County is 90+% white. It's basically a WWC county.

I think it's also a given that Eastern beach/vacation areas are pretty solidly Republican? Thinking of places like Worcester, MD (Ocean City), Sussex, DE (Rehoboth), historically VA Beach, Dare County, NC (Outer Banks). Ocean is Tom's River + beach communities and not much interior NJ to balance it out. Early episodes of Jersey Shore took place in Ocean County.

The Cape Henlopen area is currently the only part of Sussex County, DE that votes Democrat. The Delaware state House’s Democratic speakers hails from Rehoboth. That corner of the state is a retiree mecca for wealthy liberals from the DC area. I’m speaking from experience here, my family would make a trip out to Rehoboth just about every summer during my childhood, my parents retired out there several years ago, and I spent a couple of years there on and off during breaks while finishing up college.

[Suburbia]

College attainment and per capita income are both below average for New Jersey.

Adding to this Toms River has always been a working class/industrial city and Ocean County is 90+% white. It's basically a WWC county.

I think it's also a given that Eastern beach/vacation areas are pretty solidly Republican? Thinking of places like Worcester, MD (Ocean City), Sussex, DE (Rehoboth), historically VA Beach, Dare County, NC (Outer Banks). Ocean is Tom's River + beach communities and not much interior NJ to balance it out. Early episodes of Jersey Shore took place in Ocean County.

The Cape Henlopen area is currently the only part of Sussex County, DE that votes Democrat. The Delaware state House’s Democratic speakers hails from Rehoboth. That corner of the state is a retiree mecca for wealthy liberals from the DC area. I’m speaking from experience here, my family would make a trip out to Rehoboth just about every summer during my childhood, my parents retired out there several years ago, and I spent a couple of years there on and off during breaks while finishing up college.

Biden vacations there, he is probably there right now.