Roughly 4 in 10 say votes in New Jersey, Virginia were cast to oppose Trump: Poll
Many voters in New Jersey and Virginia — which both elected Democratic governors on Tuesday — cast their ballots in opposition to President Trump, according to the AP Voter Poll.
In the Prairie State, where Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) defeated former New Jersey General Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli (R) for governor, 40 percent of registered voters say they cast their votes “to oppose Trump,” compared to 13 percent who say their vote was meant “to support" the president.
Sherrill bested Ciattarelli with 56.2 percent to his 43.2 percent, according to Decision Desk HQ's (DDHQ) vote count on Wednesday morning.
In Virginia — where former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) was victorious over Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R), flipping the state to become the first female governor — 38 percent say their vote was meant “to oppose Trump. Another 16 percent say they voted to support the president.
Spanberger led Earle-Sears with 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent, according to DDHQ.
In both states, about 45 percent of voters said their ballots were “not about Trump," the poll found.
The results from New York City’s mayoral race and California’s Prop 50 ballot measure — which allows Democrats to enact a friendlier set of congressional lines in the Golden State —represented the two opposite ends of the spectrum.
New York voters overwhelmingly say their votes were not about Trump, at 57 percent, despite efforts from both Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who came in second place, to invoke the president to rally against their opponent.
Mamdani tried to suggest Cuomo would be too friendly with the president, who announced his support for the former governor in recent days; while Cuomo reminded voters that Trump promised to crackdown on the city and withhold funding if the State Assembly member was elected.
In that race, 32 percent say they voted to oppose Trump while 8 percent say their votes were cast to support him, according to the survey.
In California, on the other hand, voters opted to move forward with a mid-decade redistricting effort, which could hand Democrats as many as five seats in next year’s midterm election. The effort was sold as a response to Trump’s pressure campaign on GOP governors — starting in Texas — to pursue a similar redistricting effort to give the Republican party more pick up opportunities in 2026.
There, 51 percent, say they voted to oppose Trump while 8 percent voted to support him. Another 42 percent said their vote was not about the president, according to the poll.
The AP Voter survey of registered voters, conducted Oct. 22-Nov. 4, included 4,490 in California, 4,244 in New Jersey, 4,304 in New York City and 4,215 in Virginia. The margins of error are 2 percentage points, 2.1 percentage points, 2.2 percentage points and 2.1 percentage points, respectively.