Menendez job approvals at 43%, Monmouth Poll shows

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez has job approval ratings of 43%-35%, according to a new poll released Thursday by the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

These numbers come three years before Menendez, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will next face the voters of New Jersey

In a state that has one million more Democrats than Republicans and hasn’t elected a Republican to the United States Senate since 1972, the most important number for Menendez is his 72%-10% job approval rating among Democrats.

Only Hawaii has gone longer than New Jersey without electing a Republican to the U.S. Senate.  Since Clifford Case’s landslide re-election victory in 1972, 48 other states have elected Republican senators.

Menendez’s numbers are better than where Menendez was at a similar point six years ago, when his job approval ratings were at 38%-38%.  Menendez won that race by 354,299 votes, 54%-43%, despite nearly $40 million being spent against him by Republican self-financer Bob Hugin.

Still, Menendez is upside-down among independents, with approvals of 33%-41%.  He’s at 45%-27% among women and 40%-43% among men.

One of six Hispanic Americans in the U.S. Senate, Menendez’s approval is at 56%-18% among voters of color in New Jersey.  Among White voters, Menendez is at 36%-44%.

Menendez’s new approvals represent a statistically insignificant change from a May 2021 Monmouth poll that put Menendez’s job approvals at 46%-38%.  Despite winning three statewide elections by wide margins, Menendez traditionally has only passed approvals of 50% in a Monmouth poll once in his career – that was in April 2014.

“Senator Menendez remains in a strong position for reelection because voters know that he has always been a fighter for New Jersey,” said Michael Soliman, Menendez’s top political advisor.

The Monmouth University Polling Institute was in the field from September 16-20 with a sample size of 804 New Jersey voters and a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.