FDU Poll Finds Voters Back New Natural Gas Plants

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Voters Back New Natural Gas Plants

Speed, partisan cues drive support for new construction

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ, October 29, 2025 –By a 3 to 1 margin, New Jersey voters support the construction of new natural gas power plants, at least as a bridge until other types of power can be brought online. According to the latest results from the FDU Poll, in partnership with the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey, both Republicans and Democrats support the construction of natural gas plants, but the disconnect between partisan cues and long-held views of energy policy leads many Democrats to be ambivalent about the construction of new natural gas plants.

“We’ve seen a real shift in rhetoric on natural gas plants from Democrats in the past few months,” said Dan Cassino, a Professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the Executive Director of the FDU Poll. “Politicians are responding to the public, and the public wants action quickly.”

A strong majority of voters in the state support the construction of new natural gas plants, with 64 percent saying that they support it, and only 22 percent saying that the state should wait for other options. However, that support is polarized along party lines. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans favor new natural gas plants, at least until other energy sources can be brought online, but support is rather lower (46 percent) among Democrats. Still, even among Democrats, supporters outnumber those who oppose building new plants, 46 to 33.

“New Jersey voters now favor building new natural gas plants by a 3:1 margin to help lower energy prices. Pursuing an all-of-the-above energy program to increase our energy supply is the right way to go,” said Anthony Russo, President of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey. “It is time we reverse direction from depending solely on wind.  Voters agree and so do both candidates for governor.”

Democrats are also more likely than other partisan groups to say that they don’t know how they feel on the issue. Twenty-one percent of Democrats say that they’re don’t know how to answer the question, compared to 11 percent of independents, and just six percent of Republicans.

“This is a tricky issue for Democrats, because of the cross-pressures between rejecting fossil fuels, and their party’s focus on bringing down energy bills,” said Cassino. “That leads to a lot of people not sure how they’re supposed to be feeling about natural gas plants.”

Men are also much more likely than women to support the construction of new natural gas plants. Seventy-five percent of men say that the state should build new plants, with only 17 percent opposed. Fifty-five percent of women support building new natural gas plants, with 25 percent opposed. There’s very little difference in the attitudes of voters who have a four-year college degree (63 percent support) and those that do not (66 percent).

“Generally, college educated voters are much skeptical of fossil fuel plants than other voters, and we’re just not seeing that here,” said Cassino. “Some combination of partisan cues and concerns about rising prices are working to increase support for natural gas even among people who would otherwise reject them.”

Methodology

The FDU Poll is a proud member of the AAPOR Transparency Initiative and is devoted to ensuring that our results are presented in such a way that anyone can quickly and easily get all of the information that they may need to evaluate the validity of our surveys. We believe that transparency is the key to building trust in the work of high-quality public opinion research, and necessary to push our industry forward.

The survey was conducted between October 9 and 15, 2025, using a voter list of registered voters in New Jersey carried out by Braun Research of Princeton, New Jersey. Contact attempts were limited to registered voters who had voted in one or both of the last two NJ gubernatorial elections or were newly registered since the last NJ gubernatorial election. These respondents were considered likely voters if they met these criteria and said that they intended to vote in November’s gubernatorial election.

Respondents were contacted via either live caller telephone interviews, or text-to-web surveys sent to cellular phones, resulting in an overall sample of 814 registered voters in the state. Surveys were carried out via live caller telephone interviews to landlines (131) and cellphones (275) and the remainder (409) were done on a web platform via weblinks sent via SMS to cell phones. Surveys were conducted only in English.

The data were weighted to be representative of the population of registered voters in New Jersey. The weights used, like all weights, balance the demographic characteristics of the sample to match known population parameters. The weighted results used here are balanced to match parameters for sex, age, education, region and race/ethnicity.

SPSSINC RAKE, an SPSS extension module that simultaneously balances the distributions of all variables using the GENLOG procedure, was used to produce final weights. Weights were trimmed to prevent individual interviews from having too much influence on the final results. The use of these weights in statistical analysis helps to ensure that the demographic characteristics of the sample approximate the demographic characteristics of the target population. The size of these weights is used to construct the measure of design effects, which indicate the extent to which the reported results are being driven by the weights applied to the data, rather than found in the data itself. Simply put, these design effects tell us how many additional respondents would have been needed to get the weighted number of respondents across weighted categories: larger design effects indicate greater levels of under-representation in the data. In this case, calculated design effects are approximately 1.2, largely driven by the weights used on the race/ethnicity variable.

All surveys are subject to sampling error, which is the expected probable difference between interviewing everyone in a population versus a scientific sampling drawn from that population. Sampling error should be adjusted to recognize the effect of weighting the data to better match the population. In this poll, the simple sampling error for 814 registered voters is +/-3.4 percentage points, at a 95 percent confidence interval. Including the design effects, the margin of error would be +/-3.9 percentage points, though the figure not including them is much more commonly reported.

This error calculation does not take into account other sources of variation inherent in public opinion studies, such as non-response, question wording, differences in translated forms, or context effects. While such errors are known to exist, they are often unquantifiable within a particular survey, and all efforts, such as randomization and extensive pre-testing of items, have been used to minimize them.

Weighted Telephone Sample Characteristics

814 Likely Voters in New Jersey

Figures do not include individuals who declined to answer demographic items.

Man                                

46%                 N = 377
Woman                            

52%                 N = 426
Some Other Way          

1%                  N = 7

 

18-30                          

15%                N = 122
31-44                          

20%                 N = 163
45-64                          

34%                 N = 279
65+                              

31%                 N = 249

 

White                                           

64%                N = 522
Black                                              

14%                N = 111
Hispanic/Latino/a                                     

12%                N = 101
Asian                                       

4%                  N = 34
MENA                                      

2%                  N = 16
Other/Multi-racial                                    

2%                  N = 18

 

No college degree                      

58%                N = 471
College degree or more             

42%                N = 338

 

Democrat (including leaners)    

46%                N = 370
Independent (no lean)                

16%                N = 130
Republican (including leaners)  

38%                N = 305

 

Question Wording and Order

First off, we’d like to ask you about this Fall’s race for governor.

NJ1. In this November’s gubernatorial election, do you think you will vote for the Democrat Mikie Sherrill, the Republican Jack Ciattarelli, or do you think you’ll not vote? [Shuffle order of Sherrill and Ciattarelli in question]

  1. Definitely vote for Democrat Mikie Sherrill
  2. Probably vote for Sherrill
  3. Definitely vote for Republican Jack Ciattarelli
  4. Probably vote for Republican Jack Ciattarelli
  5. Probably won’t vote
  6. Not sure [Vol]
  7. Vote for Someone else [Vol]
  8. [DK/REF]

NJ2. There are things voters like and dislike about each of the candidates. I’m going to present three things about what each has said about themselves, or promises to do in office. For each, tell me if it’s something you like about that candidate, something that you dislike about that candidate, or if you’re not sure.

[For each, randomly select three of the traits to present]

Responses for each:

  1. Like
  2. Dislike
  3. Not Sure

Sherrill

  1. Served as a Navy helicopter pilot
  2. Mother of four
  3. Has promised to Enshrine Abortion Rights in the State Constitution
  4. Has vowed to fight against Trump administration programs that would hurt New Jersey
  5. Has promised to freeze energy bills

Ciattarelli

  1. Lifelong Resident of New Jersey
  2. Opposes Wind Farms off the Jersey Shore
  3. Wants to have a state level DOGE, like the one run by Elon Musk in Washington, to root out waste and inefficiency
  4. Father of four
  5. Has supported President Trump’s policies, including tariffs

 

NJ3. On a scale where 1 is very conservative, and 10 is very liberal, where would you place:

  1. Mikie Sherrill
  2. Jack Ciattarelli

NJ4. On a scale where 1 is intensely dislike, and 10 is intensely like, how much do you like:

  1. Mikie Sherrill
  2. Jack Ciattarelli

O1. In recent years, New Jersey has favored the development of renewable energy over energy from sources like natural gas. However, because they can generally be opened faster than other types of power plants, both candidates running for governor in New Jersey this year have said that they support building new natural gas plants, at least as a bridge to lower prices until other power sources can be brought online. What do you think? Should New Jersey build new natural gas power plants, or should we wait for other options?

  1. Build new natural gas plants
  2. Wait for other options
  3. Don’t know [Vol]
  4. Refused [vol]

O2. There have been a lot of proposals to reduce energy bills in New Jersey and nationwide. Which do you think would be a good idea? You can pick as many as you like.

[Randomize order of options]

  1. Support
    2. Oppose
    3. Don’t Know
  2. Make data centers pay more for their electricity
  3. Tighter regulation of power producers and distributors
  4. Build more natural gas power plants
  5. Build more nuclear power plants
  6. Build more renewable energy plants, including offshore wind
  7. Restrict the building of data centers and other businesses that use lots of energy

Intervening items held for later release

O5. Gender roles in the US have been changing rapidly, and we’d like to hear what you think about how men should act today. For each of the following statements, tell me whether you strongly agree or disagree, agree or disagree but not strongly, or have no opinion.

  1. Strongly Agree
  2. Agree
  3. No opinion
  4. Disagree
  5. Strongly Disagree
  6. [Vol] Don’t know/ Refused

 

  1. Men should watch football games instead of soap operas
  2. Boys should prefer to play with trucks rather than dolls.
  3. A man should always be the boss
  4. I think a young man should try to be physically tough, even if he’s not big.
  5. Men should not be too quick to tell others that they care about them

Demos

Just a few more questions, for statistical purposes

D1. In politics today, do you consider yourself a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or something else? 

  1. Democrat                    
  2. Republican 
  3. Independent  [ASK D1A]                                                                                   
  4. Something Else/Other                          
  5. DK/Ref [vol]

D1A. [Ask only if D1 is 3] Which way do you lean?

  1. Democrat 
  2. Republican
  3. Independent                                                                
  4. Something Else/Other                          
  5. DK/Ref [vol]

D1B. In addition, which of the following terms would you use to describe your political views? You can choose as many as you like. [Shuffle Order]

  1. Liberal
  2. Moderate
  3. Conservative
  4. Socialist
  5. Progressive
  6. Libertarian
  7. Make America Great Again or MAGA
  8. Nationalist

D2A. To ensure we are reaching people of all ages, would you please tell me your age?

            ____    (ENTER AGE: 98=98+, 99 = REFUSED)

            [IF Don’t Know/REFUSED IN QD1, ASK:] 

D2B.  Would you be willing to tell us whether it’s between…?

  1. Under 30
  2. 31 to 44
  3. 45 to 64
  4. 65 or over
  5. [Refused]

D3. What was the last grade in school you completed? [CODE TO LIST]

  1. Did not complete High School
  2. High School Diploma or equivalent
  3. Vocational or Trade School
  4. Some college, but no degree
  5. Associates, or other 2 year degree
  6. Bachelor’s Degree
  7. Graduate work, such as Law, MBA, Medical School, or similar
  8. Refused (VOL)

D4. How would you describe your sex? Do you describe yourself as …

  1. A Man
  2. A Woman
  3. Some other way
  4. [DK/REF]

D5. How would you describe your racial and ethnic background? You can pick as many as you’d like.

  1. White
  2. Black
  3. Asian 
  4. Hispanic/Latino/a/Spanish
  5. Middle Eastern or North African (MENA)
  6. Other or Multi-Racial
  7. [Dk/Ref]

D6. The traits that we see as being masculine or feminine are largely determined by society, and have changed dramatically over time. As a result, everyone has some combination of masculine and feminine traits, which may or may not correspond with whether they’re male or female. How do you see yourself? Would you say that you see yourself as…

  1. Completely Masculine
  2. Mostly Masculine
  3. Slightly Masculine
  4. Slightly Feminine
  5. Mostly Feminine
  6. Completely Feminine
  7. [Dk/Ref]

Release Tables

In recent years, New Jersey has favored the development of renewable energy over energy from sources like natural gas. However, because they can generally be opened faster than other types of power plants, both candidates running for governor in New Jersey this year have said that they support building new natural gas plants, at least as a bridge to lower prices until other power sources can be brought online. What do you think?

 

Overall

Dem

Indp

Rep

Build New Natural Gas Plants

64%

46%

67%

89%

Wait for Other Options

21%

33%

22%

5%

Don’t Know

14%

21%

11%

6%

 

In recent years, New Jersey has favored the development of renewable energy over energy from sources like natural gas. However, because they can generally be opened faster than other types of power plants, both candidates running for governor in New Jersey this year have said that they support building new natural gas plants, at least as a bridge to lower prices until other power sources can be brought online. What do you think?

 

Overall

Def. Sherrill

Prob. Sherrill

Prob. Ciattarelli

Def. Ciattarelli

Build New Natural Gas Plants

64%

45%

67%

78%

90%

Wait for Other Options

21%

34%

26%

11%

3%

Don’t Know

14%

21%

8%

11%

6%

 

In recent years, New Jersey has favored the development of renewable energy over energy from sources like natural gas. However, because they can generally be opened faster than other types of power plants, both candidates running for governor in New Jersey this year have said that they support building new natural gas plants, at least as a bridge to lower prices until other power sources can be brought online. What do you think?

 

Overall

30 and Under

31-44

45-64

65+

Build New Natural Gas Plants

64%

52%

61%

68%

68%

Wait for Other Options

21%

33%

25%

19%

16%

Don’t Know

14%

15%

15%

13%

15%

 

In recent years, New Jersey has favored the development of renewable energy over energy from sources like natural gas. However, because they can generally be opened faster than other types of power plants, both candidates running for governor in New Jersey this year have said that they support building new natural gas plants, at least as a bridge to lower prices until other power sources can be brought online. What do you think?

 

No 4yr Degree

4 yr Degree

Men

Women

Build New Natural Gas Plants

66%

63%

75%

55%

Wait for Other Options

22%

21%

17%

25%

Don’t Know

13%

17%

8%

20%

 

Media Contact:                           

Dan Cassino 

Executive Director, FDU Poll    

973.896.7072/ dcassino@fdu.edu

 

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