the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The 2020 race for Congress in the Fifth Congressional District of New Jersey is shaping up to be a very competitive campaign in the 2020 election. The Ridgewood Blog has obtained a poll commissioned by Assemblyman Bob Auth showing the deep vulnerability of incumbent Democrat Josh Gottheimer. Republican candidate John McCann, the 2018 Republican nominee, is currently leading Gottheimer in the race 40.4% to 38.9%. McCann is seeking a rematch this year setting up a very competitive race in the 5th Congressional district if he selected as the Republican nominee.
Assemblyman Auth briefly entered the Republican contest for the 5th district seat but decided against a candidacy this year citing the need for Republican Party unity and the challenges of organizing a district wide campaign in less than 200 days.
The poll indicates that McCann is clearly benefitting from superior name identification from his 2018 race and his strong support from voters who support President Trump. McCann’s Trump support was recently enhanced by the endorsement of Lt. Steve Rogers who is a member of President Trump’s Advisory Council and President of America Winning Coalition. America Winning Coalition is one of New Jersey’s largest grassroots organizations supporting President Trump. The groups top priorities are re-electing President Trump and electing Members of Congress who will support the Trump agenda.
McCann challenged Gottheimer in the 2018 “blue wave” that swept Democrats into office across New Jersey. McCann’s impressive showing in the face of those challenges have set the stage for the 2020 campaign. President Trump carried the 5th Congressional district against Hillary Clinton setting up a competitive general election for the Trump-McCann ticket.
As he enters the campaign, McCann is the beneficiary of high name identification, strong favorability ratings, a district wide organization and united backing from supporters of President Trump. The contest between McCann and Gottheimer is very competitive with McCann currently holding the edge in the race according to this poll. McCann is the only Republican candidate in the race leading Congressman Gottheimer in the race.
McCann is competing for the endorsement of the Bergen County Republican Organization at their county convention on March 23 where the organization’s line will be awarded.
Assemblyman Bob Auth commissioned this poll which was conducted January 23-26, 2020 by Cygnal with a sample size of 400 and a margin of error of 4.9% with a 95% confidence interval. Cygnal is a national public opinion firm and was named the top private pollster by Five Thirty Eight and the #1 most accurate polling and research firm in the country by the New York Times.
Dems are destroying NJ! I’d love to see people in this once great state start thinking for themselves and vote out all the socialists aka democrats out of office .
Robert – thanks for the deep insight.
Gottheimer had a lot of Democrats working hard for him and their work got him elected. Once in office he lost their support, voting with the Republicans. Gottheimer has lost his ardent supporters and will have a hard time getting reelected. Josh will be primaried by Arati Kreibich. She has the support of the hard working campaigners that once supported Gottheimer.
This is great news for Republicans. It is great for Bob Auth to share this information with everyone. We really need to beat Gottheimer. Hopefully McCann will have a better political environment this year and win the seat back for Republicans.
Hey Deep Insight, it was Josh convincing the good people of this district that he wouldn’t vote in lock-step with the crazies in his party that got him elected. There are not enough hard working Democrats in the district to reliably elect an AOC-wannabe anti-business, anti-capitalist Democrat. We hope Arati does primary and beat Josh. That turns the district back to red which is where the center of its electorate votes.
P.S. Wait and see the common sense backlash against the lunatic left that is currently shepherding the GR council off a cliff.