TRENTON, N.J.—Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Republican Donald Trump in New Jersey in the presidential contest Tuesday, cementing her party’s nearly quarter-century lock on the state’s 14 electoral votes and overcoming Trump’s support from Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
Polls closed at 8 p.m. and voters also cast ballots for the state’s U.S. House seats and ballot questions on expanding casino gambling and using the gas tax only for transportation.
New Jersey was not considered a battleground, and Democrats have won the state in every presidential election from 1992 onward.
But Trump’s New Jersey ties ran deep. He controlled a casino empire in Atlantic City and still owns a golf course in the state, and Christie is a top adviser and chairman of the Trump White House transition team, and a friend of 15 years.
Still, Republicans could not overcome the Democratic voter registration advantage, which Democrats expanded in November to a margin of 862,000 from 688,000 in January. Her victory also comes with Christie at record-low approval ratings in New Jersey and as he enters his final year in office, bruised from the recently concluded trial in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal that resulted in convictions of two former allies.
New Jersey is a reliably Democratic state having picked a Democrat in every presidential contest from 1992 onward. Democrats boosted their over Republicans in the state by 174,000 from January of this year to November, according to recent data from the Division of Elections.
