Two recent polls have put Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden for the presidential election in New Jersey, a state no Republican has won since 1988, amidst an ongoing Democratic Party debate over whether the incumbent president should be their candidate again in 2024.
Trump led Biden in New Jersey by 41 percent against 40 percent, with another 7 percent going to independent candidates including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a co/efficient poll of 810 likely general election voters conducted over June 26-27 by the Kansas City-based pollster. The firm is one-star rated, per FiveThirtyEight’s pollster ratings.
Separately, a survey conducted by United 2024, a Republican-supporting Super PAC, put Trump ahead of Biden by 43 percent against 41 percent in a straight contest between the two rivals. Once third-party candidates were included, Trump and Biden were tied at 38 percent each, with 8 percent for Kennedy Jr. and 3 percent for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Newsweek contacted the Joe Biden and Donald Trump presidential campaigns for comment via email on Thursday outside of usual business hours.
New Jersey Senate Race
The co/efficient poll also has Republican Curtis Bashaw within six points of Democrat Andy Kim in New Jersey’s Senate race with 39 percent of the vote against 33 percent. Incumbent Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who has been indicted on federal corruption charges, has announced he will run again as an independent with the survey putting him on 3 percent. Menendez, who stepped down as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee following his indictment, has denied all the charges against him.
Calls for Biden To Step Down
The past week has been dominated by discussion about the age and cognitive state of 81-year-old Biden, after the president appeared to repeatedly lose his train of thought during the first presidential debate against Trump on June 27 in Atlanta, Georgia.
In response, a number of Democrats, including two sitting members of Congress, have urged Biden to drop out of the race whilst the odds on Vice-President Kamala Harris winning the 2024 presidential election have surged with leading bookmakers.
The last Republican to win a presidential election in New Jersey was George H. W. Bush in 1988. Biden carried the state by 15.8 points in 2020.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump at Greenbrier Farms on June 28, 2024, in Chesapeake, Virginia. Trump has narrowly pulled ahead of Biden in the traditionally blue state of New Jersey, according to two recent polls.
Anna Moneymaker/GETTY
On Wednesday, Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva became the second congressional Democrat to call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, which he did during an interview with The New York Times.
Grijalva said: “What [Biden] needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”
Grijalva said that a second Trump presidency would be “very, very dangerous” and described the presumptive Republican candidate as an “anti-democratic, authoritarian despot.”
Earlier on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden is “absolutely not” thinking about withdrawing from the race.
An internal Democratic Party poll taken on Monday and Tuesday, sent as part of a memo, put Trump ahead of Biden by 43 percent to 42 percent. This is an improvement for Trump on the 43 percent tie that was recorded before the June 27 debate.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
