Sen. Cory Booker is polling behind three other Democratic presidential candidates in his home state of New Jersey, according to the results of a new poll released Thursday.
The survey of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters in New Jersey, conducted by Monmouth University, placed Mr. Booker fourth among fellow White House hopefuls.
Nine percent picked Mr. Booker as their preferred presidential candidate, placing him in the poll behind former Vice President Joseph R. Biden (26%), Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat (20%) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent (18%).
The former mayor of Newark, New Jersey’s most populous city, Mr. Booker launched his White House campaign during an event held on the front lawn of his downtown residence in April. Several nationwide polls have subsequently ranked him as being among the top 10 of some 20 candidates currently seeking the Democratic nomination to run in 2020 against President Trump, including a Fox News survey that ranked him in seventh place among registered voters Thursday.
“Running for president can stretch the patience of home-state constituents, and we are seeing some signs of that with Cory Booker,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “Still, he is managing to hold on to a net positive rating despite his national campaign as well as recent news that brought potentially negative attention to his time as mayor.”
Nearly five months until the first nominating caucuses are held — and practically nine until the Garden State’s presidential primaries — Mr. Murray noted that Mr. Booker still has time to make a splash.
“The field will certainly be much smaller by the time New Jersey’s presidential primary rolls around,” Mr. Murray said. “Booker’s home state standing could change dramatically if he can score an upset win in one of the February contests. But as it stands right now, Jersey Democrats are gravitating toward the three candidates who currently dominate the national spotlight.”
Mr. Booker’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. The only other Democratic presidential candidates polling above 2% in the Monmouth survey are Sen. Kamala Harris of California (6%), and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana (6%).
The Monmouth poll was conducted by telephone from Sept. 12-16 and involved interviews with 713 adults in New Jersey, including 325 registered voters who identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percentage points among the sample of Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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