Survey of New Jersey 2025: Race for Governor in Dead Heat between Sherrill and Ciattarelli
Jersey voters blame the governor, public service companies for public service costs
A new Emerson College / Pix11 / The Hill Survey of New Jersey survey of the voters conclude that 43% of voters support the Democrat Mikie Sherrill and the Republican Jack Ciatarelli respectively; 11% of voters are undecided.
“The first general electoral survey of Emerson College in the election of the governor in 2025 of New Jersey reveals a closely disputed race in the Garden State,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of the Emerson College survey. “Young voters, under the age of 40, break for Sherrill by large margins, from 58% to 24%. The race is tightening seven points among voters in his forties, with Sherrill leading to 47% at 40%, then Ciattarelli turned the script among voters over 50, which led Sherrill to 52% to 36% among this group. ”
“A gender fracture also emerges from the voters of Garden State: women are breaking from Sherrill by ten points, from 46% to 36%, while men break for Ciattarelli 12 points, 51% to 39%. In particular, women are more than twice as likely to be 15% of men,” added Kimball.
Governor Phil Murphy holds an employment approval rating of 35% and 44% disapproves of the work he does; 21% are neutral. Since May, the governor’s approval rating has decreased by five points, from 40% to 35%. President Donald Trump holds employment approval of 41% and a 51% disapproval rating; 9% are neutral.
“President Trump and Governor Murphy are a submarines among the voters of Jersey. Sherrill tries to link Ciattarelli to Trump, at the national level, and Ciattarelli tries to link Sherrill to Murphy and the cost of life at the level of the state,” said Kimball.
Voters were asked if they preferred that the next governor is working with the Trump administration or withstanding the Trump administration. Fifty -one percent prefer that they are resisting the administration, while 49% prefer that they work with the administration. Since May, the feeling has overturned: those who want the next governor to resist Trump has increased from four points from 47% to 51%, and those who prefer the governor to work with Trump increased from 53% to 49%.
Economic concerns continue to control the concerns of voters in New Jersey: 51%think that the economy is the first problem that the State is confronted, monitoring threats to democracy (13%), housing affordability (11%), health care (6%), immigration policy (5%) and crime (5%).
Regarding the property tax rate in New Jersey, 21% think that the governor is responsible for the rate, 15% believe that the state legislature is responsible for the rate, 10% of city governments, 6% of local school districts and 46% think that all these groups are responsible.
Regarding public services costs, 30% believe that public service companies are responsible for the costs of New Jersey, 22% believe that the governor is responsible, 7% of the federal government and 4% of the grid operator; 35% think that all these elements are responsible.
“New Jersey Democrats blame public service companies for the cost of public services at 36%, while the Republicans blame Governor Murphy at 36% – the self -employed are divided between the Governor (27%) and public service companies (23%),” added Kimball.
Forty-six percent of voters support their school district which merges with another to reduce costs, while 22% oppose, and 32% are neutral or have no opinion.
“The opposition is significantly higher in parents of a child between 3 and 18 years old at 37%, against 17% of non-parents of this age group,” noted Kimball.
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling New Jersey investigation was carried out from 22 to 22 to 23 September 2025. The overall sample of the voters somewhat / very likely, n = 935, has a credibility interval, similar to the margin of error of a survey (MOE), +/- 3.1 percentage points. The sets of data have been balanced by sex, education, race, age, registration of parties, the history of previous votes and the region according to the parameters of the American census and the data of voters.
It is important to remember that the subsets based on demography, such as sex, age, education and race / ethnic, take higher credibility intervals with them, because the size of the sample is reduced. The survey results must be included in the score scores of the survey, and with a 95%confidence interval, a survey will fall outside the score beach 1 in 20 times.
The data was collected by contacting a list of mobile phones via the text and the MMS-to-web emails (lists provided by Aristotle), and an online panel of voters provided by Cint. The panel responses were paved with the Aristotle voter file using the full name of the respondents and the postal code. The investigation was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with the exact wording, as well as complete results, demographic data and crossed tabs can be found under complete results. This investigation was funded by Nexstar Media.
Complete results
