Poll: Clinton leads Trump in close N.J. race
Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump with New Jersey voters, but not by much, according to a new Monmouth University poll.
Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump with New Jersey voters, but not by much, according to a new Monmouth University poll.
Asked which of the two candidates they would support if the presidential election were held today, 38 percent of registered New Jersey voters said Clinton, and 34 percent said Trump, according to the poll released Tuesday.
A further 11 percent said they would vote for an independent candidate, and 15 percent were undecided.
While Clinton's lead may seem small for a state that has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1992, "neither major-party candidate has fully locked in the support of their partisan bases," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a news release accompanying the results.
"When and if that happens, the benefit should accrue more to Clinton than to Trump simply because Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state," Murray said.
Benefits might not accrue to Trump in New Jersey if he chooses Gov. Christie as his running mate.
Just 8 percent of New Jersey voters would be more likely to vote for Trump in November if Christie were his vice presidential pick, compared with 42 percent who said they would be less likely to do so, according to the poll. A little less than half - 48 percent - said that would not affect their decision.
Recent polls have shown Christie's approval rating in New Jersey hitting new lows. A Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released last week registered the governor's approval rating at 26 percent. A Quinnipiac University poll earlier last month found it at 29 percent.
The Monmouth poll was conducted May 23-27 and included 703 registered New Jersey voters. The poll's margin of error is 3.7 percentage points.
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