ACCORDING to a new CNN/ORC International poll, Donald Trump is not leading among US voters after all.
The poll, which sampled at least 1,000 telephone interviews with American adults between Feb. 24-27, and included at least 920 interviews among registered voters, concluded that both of the remaining Democratic candidates for president easily beat out Republican front-runner Trump.
Although Clinton won by a landslide over the weekend in the South Carolina primary, putting her well ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination, she is likely to face stronger Republican opposition between Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
According to the poll’s hypothetical match-up scenario, which appears most likely to emerge from the looming primaries, Clinton tops Trump 52 percent to 44 percent among registered voters. The result has also slanted in Clinton’s favor, since the last CNN/ORC poll in January.
Against Rubio and Cruz, however, Clinton faces the same likability challenge in the polls. The former Secretary of State trails closely behind Rubio, 50 percent to 47 percent, and she holds 48 percent to Cruz’s 49 percent, narrowing the race match-up from 3 points to 1.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has the most positive favorable rating (60 percent of registered voters) of any presidential candidate in the whole field, beat out all three Republicans by wide margins: outnumbering Cruz 57 to 40 percent; crushing Trump 55 to 43 percent, and 53 to 45 percent against Rubio.
Sanders also fares better than Clinton in each match-up among men, young voters, and independents.
Overall, Clinton and Trump are still seen unfavorably by majorities of voters: almost 6-in-10 have a negative view of Trump, with 38 percent in favor; while 53 percent have a negative view of Clinton, 44 percent positive.
Cruz also has a net negative rating, while impressions of Carson, Rubio, and Kasich leaned positive.
According to the poll, 78 percent of US voters (including almost the same share among Democrats, Republicans and Independents) say that the nation is even “more deeply divided on major issues facing the country,” than it has been in the past.
The nationwide survey asked voters to choose which of all the remaining top candidates, regardless of party, they trust most to handle seven key issues. According to CNN, Trump tops the list on the economy, terrorism and immigration, while Clinton is the top choice when it comes to health care, race relations and foreign policy. Voters are about evenly split between Trump and Clinton on gun policy.
Though the share of leaned Republican voters choosing Clinton on any of the tested issues tops out at 8 percent on health care, Trump is the most trusted for 15 percent of leaned Democrats on terrorism, 14 percent on the economy and 13 percent on immigration.
Republicans generally have the edge on the economy, terrorism, immigration and gun policy, while more voters choose either Sanders or Clinton on race relations and health care. Foreign policy has about an even split between the two parties.
The margin of sampling error for the results, based on the total sample, is plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll also determined that if Michael Bloomberg, an independent and former mayor of New York City, decide to run as an independent candidate, his candidacy would harm Clinton’s bid to beat Trump, more than it would defeat Sanders’ campaign. However, few polled said they would consider backing Bloomberg, should he decide to run.
