Stokes easily topped a four-man field in the Republican Party, including former U.S. Representative Charles N. Fowler, whom he had defeated in the 1910 primary for U.S. Senate.

The Progressive primary was closest, with Colby defeating Montclair industrialist Edmund Burke Osborne by 29 percent of the vote.

The Democratic nomination was hotly contested between two progressive candidates from Hudson County, acting Governor James Fairman Fielder and H. Otto Wittpenn, the mayor of Jersey City.

Fielder, who thus had the support of Wilson and the party machine, easily defeated third-time candidate Frank S. Katzenbach in the September 23 primary.

[5] On July 26, both candidates spoke in Ocean Grove at a mass meeting of the New Jersey Men's League for Women's Suffrage, along with George La Monte, Lillian Feickert, and Mina Van Winkle.