New Jersey's 5th Congressional District election, 2020

Elections in New Jersey, 2020

• Election date: Nov. 3
• Registration deadline(s): Oct. 13
• Online registration: Yes
• Same-day registration: No
• Recount laws

• Early voting starts: N/A
• Absentee/mail voting deadline(s): Nov. 3 (postmarked); Nov. 10 (received)
• Processing, counting, and challenging absentee/mail-in ballots
• Voter ID: No ID
• Poll times: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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On the ballot: U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Special state legislative • Local judges • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal

2022 → ← 2018
New Jersey's 5th Congressional District
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 30, 2020
Primary: July 7, 2020 General: November 3, 2020 Pre-election incumbent: Josh Gottheimer (Democrat)
How to vote
Poll times: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in New Jersey
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020
See also
New Jersey's 5th Congressional District U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th New Jersey elections, 2020 U.S. Congress elections, 2020 U.S. Senate elections, 2020 U.S. House elections, 2020 Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

All U.S. congressional districts, including the 5th Congressional District of New Jersey, held elections in 2020.

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer won election in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
March 30, 2020	July 7, 2020	November 3, 2020

Heading into the election the incumbent was Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who was first elected in 2016.

New Jersey's 5th Congressional District is located in the northern portion of the state and includes much of the northern portions of Warren, Sussex, Passaic and Bergen counties.

Post-election analysis

The table below compares the vote totals in the 2020 presidential election and 2020 U.S. House election for this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

Presidential and congressional election results, New Jersey's 5th Congressional District, 2020
Race	Presidential	U.S. House
Democratic candidate	51.9	53.2
Republican candidate	46.7	45.6
Difference	5.2	7.6

Election procedure changes in 2020

See also: Changes to election dates, procedures, and administration in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020

Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.

New Jersey modified its absentee/mail-in voting and candidate filing procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:

• Absentee/mail-in voting: Mail-in were ballots sent to all registered voters in the general election.
• Candidate filing procedures: Candidates were allowed to collect and submit petition signatures via electronic means. The petition deadline for unaffiliated candidates for non-presidential office was postponed to July 7, 2020.

For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer defeated Frank Pallotta and Louis Vellucci in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Gottheimer (D)	53.2	225,175
		Frank Pallotta (R)	45.6	193,333
		Louis Vellucci (American Values Party)	1.2	5,128

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 423,636
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer defeated Arati Kreibich in the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on July 7, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Gottheimer	66.5	52,406
		Arati Kreibich	33.5	26,418

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 78,824
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Frank Pallotta defeated John McCann, James Baldini, and Hector Castillo in the Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on July 7, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Frank Pallotta	51.7	25,834
		John McCann	32.4	16,220
	Submit photo	James Baldini	10.3	5,126
		Hector Castillo	5.6	2,814

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 49,994
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Dana DiRisio (R)
• Paul Duggan (R)
• Robert Auth (R)
• Mike Ghassali (R)
• Jon Dalrymple Jr. (R)

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

Two of 21 New Jersey counties—9.5 percent—are Pivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008
County	Trump margin of victory in 2016	Obama margin of victory in 2012	Obama margin of victory in 2008
Gloucester County, New Jersey	0.48%	10.77%	12.16%
Salem County, New Jersey	15.00%	1.31%	3.92%

In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton (D) won New Jersey with 55.5 percent of the vote. Donald Trump (R) received 41.4 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, New Jersey voted Democratic 46.67 percent of the time and Republican 53.33 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, New Jersey voted Democratic all five times.

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+3, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 3 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made New Jersey's 5th Congressional District the 217th most Republican nationally.

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.09. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.09 points toward that party.

Campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election. It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees. The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Josh Gottheimer	Democratic Party	$7,799,294	$3,593,230	$8,349,098	As of December 31, 2020
Frank Pallotta	Republican Party	$2,100,505	$2,077,177	$23,328	As of December 31, 2020
Louis Vellucci	American Values Party	$5,456	$5,342	$114	As of December 31, 2020
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

• Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
• Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
• Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.
• Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.

Race ratings: New Jersey's 5th Congressional District election, 2020
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 3, 2020	October 27, 2020	October 20, 2020	October 13, 2020
The Cook Political Report	Solid Democratic	Likely Democratic	Likely Democratic	Likely Democratic
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

District represented by a Democrat in 2020 and won by Donald Trump in 2016

See also: U.S. House districts represented by a Democrat in 2020 and won by Donald Trump in 2016

This district was one of 30 Democratic-held U.S. House districts up in 2020 that Donald Trump (R) won in the 2016 presidential election. Most were expected to be among the House's most competitive elections in 2020.

2020 Democratic-held U.S. House districts won by Donald Trump in 2016
District	Incumbent	Ran in 2020?	2018 congressional margin	2016 presidential margin	2012 presidential margin
Arizona's 1st	Tom O'Halleran	Yes	Democrats+7.7	Trump+1.1	Romney+2.5
Georgia's 6th	Lucy McBath	Yes	Democrats+1.0	Trump+1.5	Romney+23.3
Illinois' 14th	Lauren Underwood	Yes	Democrats+5.0	Trump+3.9	Romney+10
Illinois' 17th	Cheri Bustos	Yes	Democrats+24.2	Trump+0.7	Obama+17
Iowa's 1st	Abby Finkenauer	Yes	Democrats+5.1	Trump+3.5	Obama+13.7
Iowa's 2nd	Dave Loebsack	Retired	Democrats+5.2	Trump+4.1	Obama+13.1
Iowa's 3rd	Cindy Axne	Yes	Democrats+2.2	Trump+3.5	Obama+4.2
Maine's 2nd	Jared Golden	Yes	Democrats+1.3	Trump+10.3	Obama+8.6
Michigan's 8th	Elissa Slotkin	Yes	Democrats+3.8	Trump+6.7	Romney+3.1
Michigan's 11th	Haley Stevens	Yes	Democrats+6.7	Trump+4.4	Romney+5.4
Minnesota's 2nd	Angie Craig	Yes	Democrats+5.5	Trump+1.2	Obama+0.1
Minnesota's 7th	Collin Peterson	Yes	Democrats+4.3	Trump+30.8	Romney+9.8
Nevada's 3rd	Susie Lee	Yes	Democrats+9.1	Trump+1.0	Obama+0.8
New Hampshire's 1st	Chris Pappas	Yes	Democrats+8.6	Trump+1.6	Obama+1.6
New Jersey's 3rd	Andrew Kim	Yes	Democrats+1.3	Trump+6.2	Obama+4.6
New Jersey's 5th	Josh Gottheimer	Yes	Democrats+13.7	Trump+1.1	Romney+3.0
New Jersey's 11th	Mikie Sherrill	Yes	Democrats+14.6	Trump+0.9	Romney+5.8
New Mexico's 2nd	Xochitl Torres Small	Yes	Democrats+1.9	Trump+10.2	Romney+6.8
New York's 11th	Max Rose	Yes	Democrats+6.5	Trump+9.8	Obama+4.3
New York's 18th	Sean Maloney	Yes	Democrats+10.9	Trump+1.9	Obama+4.3
New York's 19th	Antonio Delgado	Yes	Democrats+5.2	Trump+6.8	Obama+6.2
New York's 22nd	Anthony Brindisi	Yes	Democrats+1.8	Trump+15.5	Romney+0.4
Oklahoma's 5th	Kendra Horn	Yes	Democrats+1.4	Trump+13.4	Romney+18.4
Pennsylvania's 8th	Matt Cartwright	Yes	Democrats+9.3	Trump+9.6	Obama+11.9
Pennsylvania's 17th	Conor Lamb	Yes	Democrats+12.5	Trump+2.6	Romney+4.5
South Carolina's 1st	Joe Cunningham	Yes	Democrats+1.4	Trump+13.1	Romney+18.1
Utah's 4th	Ben McAdams	Yes	Democrats+0.3	Trump+6.7	Romney+37.0
Virginia's 2nd	Elaine Luria	Yes	Democrats+2.2	Trump+3.4	Romney+2.3
Virginia's 7th	Abigail Spanberger	Yes	Democrats+1.9	Trump+6.5	Romney+10.5
Wisconsin's 3rd	Ron Kind	Yes	Democrats+19.3	Trump+4.5	Obama+11
Source: Sabato's Crystal Ball and Daily Kos

Click here to see the five U.S. House districts represented by a Republican in 2020 and won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Candidate ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for 5th Congressional District candidates in New Jersey in the 2020 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in New Jersey, click here.

Filing requirements, 2020
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Signature formula	Filing fee	Filing fee formula	Filing deadline	Source
New Jersey	5th Congressional District	Qualified party	200	Fixed number	N/A	N/A	3/30/2020	Source
New Jersey	5th Congressional District	Unaffiliated	100	Fixed number	N/A	N/A	7/7/2020	Source

District election history

2018

See also: New Jersey's 5th Congressional District election, 2018

General election

General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer defeated John McCann, James Tosone, and Wendy Goetz in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Gottheimer (D)	56.2	169,546
		John McCann (R)	42.5	128,255
		James Tosone (L)	0.7	2,115
	Submit photo	Wendy Goetz (Trade, Health, Environment Party)	0.6	1,907

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 301,823
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

Incumbent Josh Gottheimer advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on June 5, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Gottheimer	100.0	27,486

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 27,486
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5

John McCann defeated Steve Lonegan in the Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 5 on June 5, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John McCann	53.0	16,685
		Steve Lonegan	47.0	14,767

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 31,452
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2016

See also: New Jersey's 5th Congressional District election, 2016

New Jersey's 5th Congressional District was a battleground district in 2016. Josh Gottheimer (D) defeated incumbent Scott Garrett (R) and Claudio Belusic (L) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Garrett defeated Michael Cino and Peter Vallorosi in the Republican primary on June 7, 2016. Gottheimer won the November 8 election, defeating incumbent Garrett.

U.S. House, New Jersey District 5 General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Josh Gottheimer	51.1%	172,587
	Republican	Scott Garrett Incumbent	46.7%	157,690
	Libertarian	Claudio Belusic	2.2%	7,424
Total Votes				337,701
Source: New Jersey Division of Elections

U.S. House, New Jersey District 5 Republican Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Scott Garrett Incumbent	82.2%	42,179
Michael Cino	9.5%	4,884
Peter Vallorosi	8.3%	4,252
Total Votes		51,315
Source: New Jersey Division of Elections

2014

See also: New Jersey's 5th Congressional District elections, 2014

The 5th Congressional District of New Jersey held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Scott Garrett (R) defeated Roy Cho (D) and Mark Quick (For Americans) in the general election.

U.S. House, New Jersey District 5 General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Scott Garrett Incumbent	55.4%	104,678
	Democratic	Roy Cho	43.3%	81,808
	For Americans	Mark Quick	1.3%	2,435
Total Votes				188,921
Source: New Jersey Division of Elections

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in New Jersey, 2020
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2020

External links

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

New Jersey's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Cory Booker (D)

Andrew Kim (D)

Representatives

District 1

Donald Norcross (D)

District 2

Jeff Van Drew (R)

District 3

Herbert Conaway (D)

District 4

Chris Smith (R)

District 5

Josh Gottheimer (D)

District 6

Frank Pallone (D)

District 7

Thomas Kean (R)

District 8

Robert Menendez (D)

District 9

Nellie Pou (D)

District 10

LaMonica McIver (D)

District 11

Mikie Sherrill (D)

District 12

Bonnie Coleman (D)

Democratic Party (11)

Republican Party (3)

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