Polls

Clinton leads GOP field nationally, although down from February

| Tom Jensen

PPP’s newest national Presidential poll finds Hillary Clinton leading the field of potential Republican candidates by anywhere from 3-9 points. Her advantage is down from being ahead by 7-10 points against the various potential GOP contenders on our February poll.

Even with her advantage over the Republican field on the decline, Clinton is still clearly a stronger candidate than anyone else the Democrats might put forward at this point. Clinton leads Scott Walker, who currently leads in our national GOP polling, 46/42. By comparison Joe Biden (46/40) and Elizabeth Warren (43/39) would both trail Walker in hypothetical match ups.

In addition to Walker, 2 other GOP hopefuls come within 4 points of Clinton. Marco Rubio trails her just 46/43, and Rand Paul’s deficit is 46/42. Paul’s numbers are interesting. He actually does better than anyone else on his side with independents, leading Clinton by 14 points at 47/33. But the 77% of the Republican vote he gets against Clinton is the lowest of any candidate other than Chris Christie, suggesting that some GOP voters have so much concern about him that they might not even vote for him in a general election. Overall 30% of voters see Paul favorably to 47% who have a negative opinion.

Clinton leads Ben Carson 47/42. Ted Cruz caught fire with conservatives in his party after his candidacy announcement two weeks ago and moved into the upper echelon of Republican candidates within the primary electorate, but there are still a lot of more moderate voters in his party who have deep concerns about him. The 15% of Republicans he loses to Clinton is the most of any of the party’s contenders, and it puts him down 49/43. Also down by 6 points is Jeb Bush at 46/40. 

The Republicans faring the worst are Mike Huckabee who trails Clinton by 7 at 48/41, Rick Perry who trails Clinton by 9 at 48/39, and Chris Christie who trails Clinton by 9 at 46/37. Only 69% of Republicans even say they would vote for Christie in the general, by far the lowest of any of the party’s possible candidates.

When it comes to the Democratic primary, Clinton’s position is unchanged from February- she was at 54% then and she’s at 54% now. Elizabeth Warren at 14%, Joe Biden at 7%, Bernie Sanders at 6%, Martin O’Malley at 3%, and Jim Webb at 2% round out the field. 

Full results here

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