2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election
Updated: Wikipedia source
The 2013 New Jersey gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2013, to elect the governor of New Jersey. Incumbent Republican governor Chris Christie ran for re-election to a second term in office. He faced Democratic nominee Barbara Buono and six others in the general election. Christie won re-election in a landslide, receiving over 60% of the vote and carrying 19 of the state's 21 counties, including 6 that he lost in 2009, with the only two counties voting for Buono being heavily Democratic Hudson and Essex. This is the only statewide election held in New Jersey since the 1988 presidential election in which a Republican earned a majority of the vote. Christie became the first Republican gubernatorial candidate to win a majority of the vote since Thomas Kean's landslide victory in 1985. Christie was sworn in for his second term on January 21, 2014. Christie won 21% of Black voters and 51% of Latinos. As of 2025, this is the last time Republicans won any statewide election in New Jersey. This is also the last time the counties of Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Middlesex, Mercer, and Union voted for the Republican candidate in a statewide election, as well as the last time that Somerset and Passaic did so in a gubernatorial election. Christie was criticized for spending an additional $12–25 million of state money to hold a special election for United States Senator for New Jersey 20 days earlier on October 16 instead of simply holding the special election on November 5, concurrent with the already scheduled gubernatorial election. The Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate was Newark mayor Cory Booker. Buono said it was hypocritical, speculating that Booker's presence on the ballot would attract more black and other minority voters who would be likely to vote for Buono. This is the only gubernatorial election since 1989 in which anyone won over 60% of the vote, and Christie was the first Republican to do so since 1985. Cumberland, Camden, and Union counties voted Republican in a gubernatorial election for the first time since 1985, and Mercer & Passaic since 1993. Buono is the only Democratic nominee for governor since 1985 to never be elected governor and remains the last to receive under a million votes.