NJ-SEN: Kim in pole position to be New Jersey's next U.S. senator, FDU poll finds
Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU)’s new poll of New Jersey’s U.S. Senate race finds Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) with a hefty 57% to 39% lead against Republican Curtis Bashaw, providing yet more evidence that Kim is overwhelmingly likely to be New Jersey’s next senator.
Kim, a three-term congressman from Burlington County, also has strikingly strong favorability ratings in the poll: 53% of registered voters view him favorably and just 16% view him unfavorably, while Bashaw, a hotel developer from Cape May, has a more mixed 31% to 21% rating. 31% don’t know enough to have an opinion on Kim, and 48% don’t have an opinion on Bashaw – which may be evidence of the relatively low visibility that the Senate campaign has had for some voters.
“New Jersey is an expensive state to campaign in, and this Senate race just hasn’t been that visible,” FDU poll director Dan Cassino said in a release accompanying the poll. “Voters are seeing more ads for House candidates on Long Island than they are about the Kim-Bashaw race, so it’s not surprising that they don’t know much about the candidates.”
Kim’s 18-point lead is in line with previous Senate elections in New Jersey; Democrats haven’t lost a Senate race in the state since 1972, and they’ve won all of them by double digits since 2006. In 2020, Senator Cory Booker beat Republican Rik Mehta 57%-41%, while in 2018, Senator Bob Menendez won re-election to the seat Kim and Bashaw are now running for by a 54%-43% margin – and that was only after Republican Bob Hugin dipped into his personal fortune to spend $36 million attacking Menendez as a crook.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/polling/kim-in-pole-position-to-be-new-jerseys-next-u-s-senator-fdu-poll-finds/