Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton only has a small lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump in New Jersey, according to a new poll, suggesting Trump may be putting another safe Democratic state in play for November.
The poll, conducted by Monmouth University, has Trump trailing Clinton 38-34 in New Jersey. Eleven percent say they plan to vote third party and 15 percent are undecided. Like other polls of the 2016 race, Monmouth’s poll shows a gargantuan gender gap, with Trump leading by nine points among men and Clinton leading by 16 among women. Trump leads 44-29 among white voters, while Clinton unsurprisingly leads 54-14 percent among all non-white voters. Notably, Trump has the support of just 1 percent of black voters, though 21 percent say they are undecided.
New Jersey has been a safe Democratic state in every election since 1992, so if it becomes competitive it’s a very bad sign for Clinton. For comparison, President Barack Obama crushed former Gov. Mitt Romney in the state by a margin of nearly 18 percentage points.
Trump’s enhanced appeal may be based partly on his life-long presence in the New York area, as well as the strong endorsement he received from Gov. Chris Christie.
The poll was conducted May 23-27 with a sample of 703 registered voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
Meanwhile, another poll released Tuesday, conducted by the Boston Herald and Franklin Pierce University, had Trump and Clinton tied 44-44 in the swing state of New Hampshire. Obama won the state by about 5.5 percent in 2012.
New Jersey isn’t the first blue state Trump has appeared to put in play. A Quinnipaic poll from early May showed Trump trailing by just a single point in Pennsylvania, which also hasn’t voted for a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
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