Early Voting in New Jersey: Democrats Pass Their Entire 2025 Total in the Kean and Van Drew Districts Before the Final Day Even Starts
In the two Republican-held House districts Democrats most want to flip, Democratic voters had already cast more advance ballots by Saturday night than in all of 2025 — while Republican turnout in both districts is running well below last year.
The most consequential numbers of New Jersey's early-voting week are not the statewide totals. They are in two congressional districts. In the 7th District, where Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. faces Democrat Rebecca Bennett, Democrats had cast 67,135 advance ballots through Saturday — 104.4 percent of their entire 2025 advance total of 64,286, according to the New Jersey Globe's reporting on Umichvoter's analysis, read in full by this desk. Republicans in the district had cast 38,251, just 72.6 percent of their 2025 total, leaving a Democratic advantage of 28,884 ballots in a district Donald Trump carried by one point in 2024.
The 2nd District, where Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew faces Democrat Zach Mullock, tells the same story in smaller type: Democrats at 49,061 advance ballots, 101.8 percent of their 2025 total, against 35,199 Republicans, 77 percent of theirs. Statewide, the pattern held through the week — through Friday, 246,768 Democrats and 140,112 Republicans had voted in person, and counting mail ballots reported through Thursday, Democrats led 594,076 to 241,031 in ballots cast. Saturday's in-person margin, 22.5 points, was wider than the same day in both 2025 and 2024.
Two cautions belong on every one of these numbers, and the Globe's analysis states the first plainly: these figures count voters by party registration, not votes for any candidate — a registered Democrat's ballot is not a Democratic vote until it is counted, and unaffiliated voters do not appear in the party columns at all. The second is the calendar: in-person early voting ends today at 6 p.m., and Republicans in New Jersey have historically done more of their voting on Election Day itself. What the early numbers prove is energy and organization in the two districts Democrats targeted hardest. What they cannot prove is a result — that count starts Tuesday.
