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    • New Jersey voters feel ‘negative emotion,’ poll finds
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    New Jersey voters feel ‘negative emotion,’ poll finds

    Pabio Posted on

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    A new poll suggests New Jersey voters are heading into the 2024 presidential election with an overwhelming sense of unease.

    According to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll, nearly nine in 10 voters in the Garden State reported some sort of negative emotional reaction to the election season. Anxiety and worry topped the list of feelings, as 57% of voters reported feeling anxious, nervous, uncomfortable, scared or worried about the upcoming election.

    “Every four years, the end of ‘spooky season’ brings not only Halloween, but also the final stretch of the presidential election and the possibility of an October surprise,” said Ashley Koning, research assistant professor. and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest. Rutgers University Survey. “What may not be a surprise this election cycle is how tense Garden State voters are feeling about this bitter presidential race.”

    Only 8% of those surveyed in mid-October said they were excited, optimistic or hopeful about what Election Day might bring. Smaller fractions of the population cited feelings of stress (4%), disappointment (2%), or even physical illness (3%).

    The survey found that voters’ sentiment about politics in general was similarly bleak. Forty percent of respondents said they “never” feel proud of politics these days, and 38 percent said they “never” feel enthusiastic about it. At the same time, 32% say they are “always” worried. 35% say they feel worried “most of the time”.

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    Anger is also present. Twelve percent of respondents said they were angry “always,” 29 percent “most of the time,” and 21 percent about half the time. Jessica Roman, director of data management and analytics at Eagleton, said independents reported feeling pride and enthusiasm about politics even less often than their partisan counterparts.

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    “Yet independents and supporters almost always say they are angry and, even more so, almost always worried,” she said.

    The mid-October poll also examined perceptions of the two leading presidential candidates, revealing a marked divergence in how New Jersey voters view their qualities. Voters surveyed associated Donald Trump more with terms like “extreme” and “incompetent,” while Kamala Harris was seen as “empathetic” and “trustworthy.” For example, 61% of voters surveyed called Trump “extreme,” compared to just 18% for Harris. Harris, meanwhile, gained a 53 to 19 percent edge in empathy.

    Voters surveyed were almost split on which candidate seemed more patriotic. Forty percent of voters surveyed associated “patriotism” with Trump, while 37 percent associated it with Harris; 9% said it applied equally to both, and 9% said it applied to neither. Independents surveyed gave Trump the edge, with 48% attributing this trait to him, compared to 23% for Harris.

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    “Patriotism has become a controversial concept during this election cycle, and both presidential campaigns are now arguing over who owns it,” Koning said. “While Republicans have generally embraced patriotism in recent history, the Harris campaign has worked to rebrand patriotism as a Democratic Party value that dissociates it from the more nationalist version touted by the opposing camp.”

    The survey of 1,018 adults conducted between October 15 and 22 also found that voters had mixed perceptions of the candidates’ strength. Forty percent of voters surveyed said “strong” was a better description for Harris, while 40% said it applied more accurately to Trump.

    Debra Borie-Holtz, a senior polling researcher at Eagleton, said female candidates often face increased scrutiny for displaying empathy, emotions and biases that call into question their political competence and strength — standards that male candidates rarely meet.

    “Those perceptions are a little upended in New Jersey, with Harris holding her ground when it comes to these more traditionally masculine leadership qualities and Trump being ascribed what have historically been seen as more negative feminine traits,” she said. declared.

    Pabio
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