1981Flipped from DemocraticFinal results
1981 election for New Jersey Governor
Governor · New Jersey
Thomas H. Kean (R) won with 50.0% of the vote, defeating James Florio (D) by 0.1 points, a seat Democrats won last time.
Thomas H. KeanRepublican · winner
50.0%1,145,999
James FlorioDemocrat
50.0%1,144,202
2,290,201 votes
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1981
Races before and after
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET