Poll: N.J. Voters Don’t Think Cory Booker Should Run for President

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rumors have long swirled that U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is mulling a 2020 presidential run. The senator has neither confirmed nor denied those predictions.

But according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, New Jersey voters don’t think the former Newark mayor should run for president in 2020.

The poll, which was released last month, found that 57 percent of participants approve of Booker’s performance, but the majority of participants – 54 percent – said they didn’t think he should consider a 2020 presidential bid (as opposed to the 33 percent who said he should). 

Booker’s support was higher amongst Democrat participants, who gave him an 85 percent approval rating. Still, only 54 percent of Democrats – slightly more than half – said they thought the senator should consider a 2020 presidential bid. About 30 percent said they thought he should not.

No other subgroup (broken down by party, gender, race and education level) said Booker should run for president. Among Republicans, 81 percent opposed the idea (while just 7 percent approved it). And 65 percent of independents said Booker should not run for president, while 25 percent said he should.

Overall, women were more likely to support Booker than men – 61 percent of women who participated in the poll gave Booker a positive review, and 40 percent said they think he should run for president (as opposed to the 27 percent of women who disapproved of Booker’s performance and the 45 percent who said he should not throw his hat in the ring).

Minority participants were also more likely to vote in favor of Booker than white voters. About 66 percent of minority participants approved of Booker’s performance (while 21 percent did not) and 41 percent said Booker should run for president in 2020 (while 44 percent said he should not).

The Quinnipiac poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points. Between April 26th and May 1st, the university surveyed 1,209 New Jersey voters (including 519 Democrats and 331 Republicans) via landline and cellphone interviews.

According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, Quinnipiac University receives an A- polling grade and has a slight Republican bias.

Follow @ClaireSasko on Twitter.