Essex County, NJ is a vibrant and diverse area with an active local political scene. The county is home to many important local politicians who are working hard to ensure that their constituents’ needs are met. These individuals take part in elections every few years, where they have the ability to make a real difference in their communities. The candidates come from all walks of life, representing people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and financial backgrounds. With such a wide variety of voices and perspectives being represented in local politics, Essex County can truly be considered a place where citizens have the power to shape their own future.
The political climate in Essex County, NJ is very liberal.
In Essex County, NJ 77.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 21.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Essex county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 77.1% to 21.8%.
Essex county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Essex County, NJ is very liberal.
New York-Newark-Jersey City Metro Area is strongly 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.
Essex, 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 Essex County, NJ
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 71,764 contributions totaling $15,203,347 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $212 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,623 contributions totaling $5,609,022 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $998 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)