1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary

The 1972 New Jersey Democratic presidential primary was held on June 6, 1972, in New Jersey as one of the Democratic Party's statewide nomination contests ahead of the 1972 United States presidential election.

In the binding delegate primary, candidates pledged to support George McGovern at the 1972 Democratic National Convention won contests for delegates at-large and most of the county races. Delegates pledged to support Hubert H. Humphrey carried Camden and Ocean counties, while slates of delegates not committed to any candidate won in Atlantic, Essex, Hudson, Salem and Warren counties.

In the non-binding preference primary, only Shirley Chisholm and Terry Sanford appeared on the ballot. Chisholm won the contest, becoming the first woman to win a statewide presidential nominating contest for a major party, as well as being the second African-American winner after Walter Fauntroy's win in the Washington D.C. contest of the same year. Neither of the candidates in the preference primary won delegates from the contest, although Chisholm fielded delegate candidates in several counties, and it was largely ignored by New Jersey voters, with the combined total vote for Chisholm and Sanford well below that cast for McGovern or Humphrey alone in the statewide delegate contest.

Over 575,078 ballots were cast, the highest recorded for a Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey at the time, and in combination with the Republican primary held the same day, a higher percentage of eligible voters (26.2%) cast a ballot in the 1972 primaries than in any presidential year since 1952 (39%). Turnout was highest in Essex (37.5%) and Hudson (37.8%) counties, where the primary presented voters a referendum on local party machine leaders.