Joe Biden has built double-digit leads over Donald Trump in New Jersey and national polls based on voters’ antipathy towards the sitting president, according to two polls released Friday.
Biden held a 52%-42% advantage among registered voters in the Pew Research Center poll, similar to his 51.6%-41.9% margin in the Real Clear Politics poll average.
More than six in 10 registered voters in the Pew poll, 63%, said they were voting against Trump while 36% said they were voting for Biden.
A Fairleigh Dickinson University survey of likely New Jersey voters put Biden ahead, 53% to 38%. In that poll, 47% of Biden supporters described their votes as anti-Trump and 50% said they were voting for the Democrat.
By contrast, overwhelming majorities of Trump supporters in both polls said they viewed their votes as supporting the president rather than opposing Biden: 71% to 29% in the Pew survey and 81%-15% in the FDU survey of New Jersey.
“Perhaps a Republican ticket would be faring better even in New Jersey if the nominee didn’t engender so much animus," said FDU Poll Director Krista Jenkins, a professor of politics and government at the university.
"It’s not that New Jersey Democrats love their candidate. With only half of all likely voters who support Biden being motivated by genuine affection for their candidate, to many Biden is a proxy for an ‘Anything But Trump’ candidate.”
Trump held a slight lead, 48% to 44%, among white voters in New Jersey, with Biden held a 69% to 19% advantage among non-whites.
Biden led in all age categories, among both men and women, in all regions of the state, and among all voters based on education, including those without college degrees (53% to 34%) who have been among Trump’s biggest backers nationally.
In the Pew poll, Biden got his highest marks when voters were asked which candidate was better able to handle the coronavirus (57% to 40%) and unify the country (50% to 30%). Trump led on the economy, but only by 1 point.
The Pew poll of 10,543 registered voters was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 5 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. The FDU poll of 582 likely New Jersey voters was conducted Sept. 30- Oct. 5 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.
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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.