Somerset County, New Jersey is an exciting place to explore the political landscape. Home to over 300,000 people, it’s one of the most populous counties in the state. The county has a long history of active politics and current issues that are important to its residents. The county is served by a variety of elected officials who work together to ensure that local needs are met. This includes both Democrats and Republicans at federal, state, and local levels. These officials come from a variety of backgrounds and have different goals for their leadership in the county. Regular local elections allow residents to vote for candidates they support and help shape the direction of policy in Somerset County. Local groups are also engaged in creating conversations on important issues facing the county such as education reform, public safety initiatives, economic development plans, and more. All this helps create an engaged political culture and allows citizens to actively participate in their government.
The political climate in Somerset County, NJ is moderately liberal.
In Somerset County, NJ 59.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 38.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Somerset county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 59.5% to 38.5%.
Somerset county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Somerset County, NJ is moderately 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.
Somerset, New Jersey: r r 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 Somerset County, NJ
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 21,164 contributions totaling $3,781,525 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $179 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,735 contributions totaling $4,896,922 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $854 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)