Princeton, NJ (08542) politics are generally considered to be moderate-leaning. Located in Mercer County, Princeton is represented by several state level and local leaders who strive to make decisions that best represent the interests of their constituents. At the federal level, Senator Bob Menendez and Representative Rush Holt currently serve as Princeton’s representatives in Congress. At the state level, Princeton is represented by Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker and Senator Linda Greenstein. On the local level, Princeton is governed by a mayor-council form of government with Elizabeth “Liz” Lempert serving as Mayor. The council consists of five members plus the mayor who all work together to ensure that policy decisions benefit the community at large.
The political climate in Zip 08542 (Princeton, NJ) is strongly liberal.
Mercer County, NJ is very liberal. In Mercer County, NJ 69.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 29.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Mercer county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 69.1% to 29.1%.
Mercer county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 08542 (Princeton, NJ) is strongly liberal.
Princeton, New Jersey is strongly liberal.
Mercer County, New Jersey is very liberal.
Trenton-Princeton Metro Area is very liberal.
New Jersey is somewhat liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Princeton, New Jersey: D D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 08542 (Princeton)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,983 contributions totaling $449,842 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $227 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 178 contributions totaling $1,592,985 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $8,949 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)