The number of registered Republicans in New Jersey grew by nearly 31,000 this year — while the number of registered Democrats dropped by more than 11,000, new data shows.
Democrats still hold the overall edge in the Garden State, with a total of 2,525,346 registered voters compared to 1,670,297 registered Republicans and 2,340,583 unaffiliated voters.
New Jersey residents had to register to vote by Oct. 14 to be able to cast their ballot in the closely watched governor’s race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
“After 25 years of a Democrat-controlled legislature and eight years of Phil Murphy, New Jersey voters have had it. Mikie Sherrill will be more of the same, but worse,” Ciattarelli campaign strategist Chris Russell told The Post in response to the new numbers.
“The state is unaffordable, overdeveloped, and far-left policies are negatively impacting our schools and the safety of our communities. It’s time for change, and Jack Ciattarelli is that change.”
During the first two weeks of October, Republicans brought in 2,250 new registered voters, while the Democrats gained 1,478 and 13,062 registered as unaffiliated voters.
In another promising sign for the Republican candidate, GOP voters are returning a higher rate of mail-in ballots — an indicator of greater enthusiasm for Ciattarelli.
New Jersey Republicans have a return rate of 48.43%, compared to the Democrats’ 47.93%, according to data compiled by DecisionDeskHQ Director of Data Science Michael Pruser — though Democrats have an advantage of 165,692 returned ballots in the raw numbers.
“The first day of early in-person voting is Saturday, and in 2024, Democrats won the first day of voting by 1.2% (outvoting Republicans by 1,644),” Pruser noted.
“If it is to be believed that Ciattarelli has enthusiasm on his side, R’s are going to have not simply to eke out a win on the first day, but generate a somewhat convincing one.”
Historically, Republicans have been less inclined to vote by mail than Democrats, though that trend started to change last November with President Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris.
The latest RealClearPolitics polling average shows Sherrill leading Ciattarelli by 4.1 percentage points.
In 2021, Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy defeated Ciattarelli by just 3.2 percentage points, a margin that ended up being nearly five percentage points closer than the final RCP average.
