Polls

Clinton up big in Washington

| Tom Jensen

PPP’s newest Washington poll finds that Hillary Clinton leads the entire Republican field in the state- by margins smaller than what Barack Obama won by in 2008 and 2012, but larger than what Al Gore and John Kerry won by in 2000 and 2004.

Clinton leads the GOP hopefuls by anywhere from 10 to 15 points. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio come the closest, each trailing by 10 at 49/39. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are each down by 11 at 48/37 and 49/38 respectively. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul face 12 point deficits at 50/38.  Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry lag by 13 points at 50/37. And Chris Christie does the worst of the Republican field with a 15 point deficit at 49/34.  Clinton doesn’t quite match the 15-17 point margins Obama won the state by, but exceeds the 5-7 point ones Gore and Kerry had.

We also tested the other Democratic hopefuls against Scott Walker but even in this dark blue state, none of them lead him. Bernie Sanders achieves a tie at 35, and the rest of the Democrats trail him- Jim Webb by 1 point at 33/32, Martin O’Malley by 3 points at 34/31, and Lincoln Chafee by 6 points at 35/29. The weak performances of the alternate Democrats are a byproduct of their being so little known that they get only 54-61% of their own party’s vote but nevertheless they show how much more formidable Clinton is than anyone else on her side.

6 Republican candidates hit double digits when it comes to who voters within their party want to be their nominee. Scott Walker leads with 18% to 15% for Marco Rubio, 13% for Mike Huckabee, 11% for Ted Cruz, and 10% each for Jeb Bush and Ben Carson. Chris Christie (6%), Rand Paul (5%), and Rick Perry (3%) round out the field.

This is another state where even though Rubio doesn’t lead the field, the poll might have the best news for him. He is the most popular candidate by a wide margin with a 62/13 favorability rating. The next most popular after him are Cruz and Huckabee with 54% favorability ratings. Rubio is also the most frequently named second choice of primary voters- overall he and Walker are each the first or second choice of 29% of Republican voters.

Walker has the slight overall edge on the Republican field due to his strength with voters who identify themselves as ‘very conservative.’ He gets 28% to 18% for Cruz, 16% for Huckabee, and 10% for Rubio. Rubio’s greatest strength is with those who label themselves as ‘somewhat conservative’- he gets 23% to 13% for Bush, 12% for Walker, and 10% for Carson.

Washington continues the trend of GOP primary voters having tepid feelings toward Bush. Only 39% see him favorably to 33% with an unfavorable opinion. The only foe who fares worse is the perpetually unpopular Chris Christie, who has a 31/43 favorability rating.

On the Democratic side Hillary Clinton continues to be dominant at 57% to 24% for Bernie Sanders, 4% for Martin O’Malley, 2% for Jim Webb, and 1% for Lincoln Chafee. This is another data point showing that Sanders has far separated himself from the rest of the Democratic field in the race for 2nd place- he has 58% name recognition with the O’Malley/Webb/Chafee trio  only coming in the 26-31% range. 

Nevertheless Clinton continues to be dominant in every demographic, getting over 50% with liberals, moderates, men, women, and voters within every age group. Her stranglehold basically leaves the race for 2nd place as the only action.

Full results here

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