New Jersey
Key moment for Nixon was when 18 New Jersey Republicans bolted from Case – New Jersey Globe
For some time, presidential primaries in New Jersey where nothing more than beauty contests where the preferred candidate of a voter was deemed so unimportant that their names did not appear on the ballot.
Instead, voters had to wrote in the name of their choice for president.
The real meat of the primary were races for delegate, which occurred at a time when the national and state parties had no rules to bind delegates to a specific presidential candidate.
Delegate slates were run by the county chairmen, who could then control votes as a national convention.
In 1968, there was no filing of petitions for presidential candidates to get on the ballot. Instead, the entire beauty contest primary was conducted through write-in votes.
On the Democratic side, Eugene McCarthy edged out Robert Kennedy by to win the presidential preference primary by 1,303 votes, 9,906 to 7,603. Hubert Humphrey finished third with 5,578 votes, followed by George Wallace (1,399). President Lyndon Johnson received 380 votes statewide, even though he had announced two months earlier that he would not seek re-election.
Those votes reflected the totals of 20 counties, since the Cape May County Clerk decided not to put the write-in option on the ballot.
Richard Nixon received 71,809 write-in votes, easily outdistancing Nelson Rockefeller (11,530) and Ronald Reagan (2,737). Scattered votes came in for John Lindsay (122) and Barry Goldwater (42).
In the at-large race for Democratic delegates, the Regular Democratic Organization slate of Gov. Richard Hughes, U.S. Senator Harrison Williams, former Gov. Robert Meyner, Jersey City Mayor John V. Kenny, and Democratic State Chairman/New Jersey Secretary of State Robert Burkhardt beat McCarthy’s candidates by a 2-1 margin. McCarthy won 19 of 76 district delegates.
At the tumultuous Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the party establishment delivered 62 first-ballot votes to Humphrey.
In Miami, where Republicans were holding their convention, New Jersey played a pivotal role in nominating Richard Nixon on the first ballot.
The plan was for all 40 New Jersey GOP delegates – elected as Republican Party Organization candidates — to vote for U.S. Senator Clifford Case on the first ballot as a way to help deny Nixon the nomination.
But Nixon, with the help of State Sen. William Hiering (R-Toms River), Bergen County GOP Chairman Nelson Gross, Monmouth County GOP Chairman J. Russell Woolley, and State Sen. Frank Farley and legendary Atlantic Republican boss Frank “Hap” Farley (R-Ventnor) peeled off 18 delegates to agreed to vote for him on the first ballot.
This caused one of the tenser moments in modern New Jersey political history.
Case and Republican State Chairman Webster Todd (the father of future Gov. Christine Todd Whitman) tried desperately to hold the 40-member delegation. Case told delegates that a vote for Nixon was a vote against him.
He told delegates there would be retribution, and when the convention came, he called for the delegation to be polled. One after another, in front of the entire convention and on national television, each of New Jersey’s 40 Republican delegates had to state their individual preference.
Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot by just 25 votes
Police fired tear gas and used horses to push back protesters outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark, after nights of demonstrations over conditions inside. New Jersey’s governor put state police in charge and set up protected protest zones.
Published On 30 May 2026
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In New Jersey, Mercer County officials have enacted new policies limiting the ability of federal immigration agents to access and use county property to conduct immigration enforcement operations.
Mercer County Executive Dan Benson issued an executive order and the Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution Friday that bans U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol from using any nonpublic area on county property to enforce immigration law, unless they have obtained a judicial warrant or judicial order.
“From Minneapolis to Delaney Hall, ICE has repeatedly shown a total disregard for the law and for the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike,” Benson said in a statement. “We respect the Federal Government’s authority to enforce immigration law, but we will not allow them to use County properties to harass our families.”
“With this resolution, we’re sending a clear message that everyone in our community can safely interact with County government, and access County services, without fear,” said Board of Commissioners Chair Terrance Stokes in a statement. “ICE’s actions threaten the fabric of our community, and we will take whatever steps we can, within the bounds of the law, to protect our residents.”
New Jersey and New York City commuters are facing extensive delays in and out of New York Penn Station Friday, with intensifying ripple effects, after an Amtrak work train car on one of the hub’s tracks caught fire.
The FDNY says it was called to the Midtown scene on 31st Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, around 1:30 a.m. Nearly 100 personnel responded. Five civilians were evaluated at the scene by EMS, officials say.
It’s not clear what sparked the fire involving Amtrak’s contractor maintenance vehicles in one of the Hudson River Tunnels. It was knocked down well before 6 a.m., but service on New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and more was expected to see heavy impacts well into the morning rush, with Hudson River trains operating at reduced capacity. Amtrak said it didn’t expect to lift its suspension until at least noon.
Travel Advisory: Due to unforeseen track and signal maintenance resulting from a now extinguished fire in the New York area, all services traveling south of New York (NYP) are temporarily suspended. This suspension is anticipated to be in place until noon at a minimum. Services…
— Amtrak Northeast (@AmtrakNECAlerts) May 29, 2026
New Jersey Transit and LIRR also announced delays and cancellations. Cross-honoring and diversion programs were in effect as the situation developed. Complete LIRR service at NY Penn had resumed by around 7 a.m., Friday said, though equipment issues were causing cancellations. Get the latest transit information here.
Video from outside Penn Station showed smoke billowing in the pre-dawn hours, as emergency personnel stood by with stretchers awaiting any potential victims.
Amtrak is investigating the cause of the fire.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause,” the agency’s latest announcement said, pledging to provide updates as new information becomes available.
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