Voters Back New Natural Gas Plants

On Oct 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% saying that they support it, and only 22% 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%) 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% of independents, and just 6% 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 member of the AAPOR Transparency Initiative. 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. Contact attempts were limited to registered voters who had voted in one or both of the last two state gubernatorial elections or were newly registered since the last 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.

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