New Jersey is Clinton country, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll released Thursday, despite the fact that people here don’t seem to like her much (45 percent to 38 percent). Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton leads her primary rival Bernie Sanders by 54 percent to 40 percent, and she would beat Republican Donald Trump by 7 percent in the general election.
Even though Trump is closely associated with New Jersey due to his casinos and golf courses, he would lose to Sanders by even a greater margin than Clinton: 49 to 37 percent.
But despite her dominance in the polls, Clinton has very high unfavorable ratings in the Garden State, just as she does in the rest of the country. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said they had an unfavorable opinion of her. That is due to 95 percent of Republicans saying they don’t like her, while white men (76 percent) and those ages 18-34 (61 percent) also don’t like her. That was somewhat outweighed by the split among women -- 47 percent vs. 47 percent.
Trump’s unfavorables are just as high. He also had an unfavorability rating of 58 percent. The difference was in those with college degrees. Trump’s unfavorables there are 65 percent, while Clinton’s were 54 percent.
The decision for the Democratic primary seems pretty solid; 84 percent of those asked said they had their minds made up. Indeed, 85 percent of those supporting Clinton said they were firm in their choice, while 81 percent of Sanders supporters expressed the same opinion. Only 1 percent said they hadn’t made their minds up.