Emerson Poll: Menendez Independent NJ Bid Gets 9 Percent

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Sen. Bob Menendez will gather less than 10% of the vote in New Jersey if he launches an independent race for his Senate seat, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The New Jersey Democrat, who announced last month ahead of the state’s filing deadline that he will not run in the Democratic primary for his seat but may consider running as an independent if he is cleared of several criminal charges he is facing, would get 9% support if running as an independent, a poll from Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill shows.

The poll further showed that 49% would pick the eventual Democrat nominee, with 42% for the Republican, reports The Hill.

The poll was conducted from March 26-29 among 1,000 registered voters, with a credibility interval of 3 points, and included 408 Democrat primary voters with a credibility interval of 4.8 points and 310 Republican primary voters with a credibility interval of 5.5 points.

Menendez, who has been in the Senate since 2006, when he was first appointed, is facing allegations that he and his wife, Nadine, had accepted bribes.

The couple was charged in September of accepting more than $600,000 in bribes from three businessmen. Menendez also has been accused of acting as a foreign agent on behalf of the Egyptian government, as well as accepting gifts from the Qatari government, and several charges have been added to his case through superseding indictments.

The senator has pleaded not guilty to all charges while refusing calls for him to resign.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s poll found that Menendez has a 62% disapproval rating and a 14% approval rating among New Jersey’s voters, with ratings slightly higher among Black and Hispanic voters.

“Hispanic and Black voters in New Jersey are more supportive of Menendez as an independent candidate, [as] 17% support the senator rather than a hypothetical Democratic or Republican candidate, compared to 6% of white voters,” Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a release. “Additionally, 24% of voters under 30 support Menendez on a three-way ballot.”

According to the poll, only 22% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans approve of Menendez’s job performance, with 7% of voters older than 60 approving.

Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., was shown as leading in the Democratic primary with 51% of voters, leaving challengers in the single digits.