New Jersey Republicans are likely to nominate a pro-life candidate for Governor today – only the seventh abortion opponent to win a statewide GOP primary since the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Pro-Choice Republicans have won fourteen statewide Republican primaries.
Pro-Life candidates winning statewide primaries: Bret Schundler (Governor, 2001); Chuck Haytaian (U.S. Senate, 1994); Jeff Bell (U.S. Senate, 1978); David Norcross (U.S. Senate, 1976); and Charles Sandman (Governor, 1973). Pro-Choice winners: Dick Zimmer (U.S. Senate, 1996 and 2008); Thomas Kean, Jr. (U.S. Senate, 2006); Douglas Forrester (U.S. Senate, 2002 and Governor, 2005); Robert Franks (U.S. Senate, 2000); Christine Todd Whitman (U.S. Senate, 1990 and Governor, 1993 and 1997); Peter Dawkins (U.S. Senate, 1988); Mary Mochary (U.S. Senate, 1984); Millicent Fenwick (U.S. Senate, 1982); and Thomas Kean (Governor, 1981 and 1985).
In 1989, Jim Courter won the Republican nomination for Governor, but switched from pro-life to pro-choice after the primary.
