Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has a solid 47%-23% job approval rating among residents of the state’s largest city, with a majority of his constituents supporting his run for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released this morning.
In a ballot test of support in next year’s primary, Newarkers give Baraka 51% of the vote; four other contenders, all within the margin of error, split 13%. More than one-third of the residents (36%) were either undecided or declined to answer.
“Newark is the biggest city in the state, and that’s a lot of Democratic voters,” said Dan Cassino, the director of the FDU poll. “Having a strong base in Newark is a good place for Baraka to start, but his challenge is going to be extending that support to other primary voters.”
Newark has nearly 90,000 registered Democrats.
Baraka’s approvals are at 52%-21% among Black residents and 41%-25% among Hispanics.
Without pledging to vote for him, 47% of Newark residents indicated they thought Baraka would make a good governor, and 25% said he would not. Among Black residents, that number grew to 57%; he was at 38%-26% among Hispanics. Baraka does best among voters over age 30; he gets 40% among voters under age 30, but 45% were undecided or refused to say.
“Newark residents aren’t thrilled with the state of the city overall, but they aren’t blaming Baraka,” Cassino said.
More than one-third of Newarkers (36%) said the city has become better to live in over the last two years, while 3% said it’s worse and 36% didn’t think much has changed.
While approval ratings and political support are subjective, the replacement of lead pipes in Newark is not. Still, just 10% of the city’s residents say lead pipes have been completely removed, and 39% said they’ve been mostly removed; 20% think the pipes remain mostly in place, and 31% either didn’t know or refused to say.
“The fact that fewer than half of residents know about one of Baraka’s major policy successes points to a real problem with getting the word out,” said Cassino. “It doesn’t matter what you do, if people don’t know about it.”
A majority of Newark residents say there are more homeless people in the city than two years ago, with the highest number coming from the East Ward. More than six in ten Newark residents (61%) indicated that they have not felt people acting aggressively when asking for money.
The FDU poll was conducted between April 10 and May 8 with a sample size of 1,120 Newark residents and a margin of error of +/-4.4%.