Hillary Clinton would crush Donald Trump in a New York State general election matchup: poll
BY Adam Edelman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Monday, March 7, 2016, 11:52 AM
Clinton would beat the outspoken real estate magnate in the Empire State 57% to 34%, the latest Siena Research Institute poll found.
In such a matchup, registered Democrats overwhelmingly support the former secretary of state (80% to 15%), and registered Republicans overwhelmingly support the Trump (71%, to 19%), while independent voters lean toward Clinton (45% to 38%), according to the poll.
The former secretary of state would also beat Marco Rubio (56% to 35%), Ted Cruz (58% to 33%) and John Kasich (49% to 42%), who would give Clinton her best competition, the poll of 800 registered New York voters showed.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also handily beat all of the Republi.can challengers, including Trump, in hypothetical general election matchups in the state, the poll found.
“Clinton leads Trump 57-34, almost identical to Sanders’ 57-33 lead over Trump,” pollster Steve Greenberg said in a statement. “Kasich has made the most headway in general election matchups against the Democrats. Sanders leads Kasich by 19 points, down from 30 points last month, and he comes within seven points of Clinton, 49-42.”
If former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were to jump into the race, he would draw his support more heavily from Democratic voters than from Republicans, the poll found.
In a hypothetical three-way matchup, Clinton would still carry New York State with 42% support, compared with 25% for Trump and 26% for Bloomberg, the poll found.
In the race for the Republican Party nomination, meanwhile, the Queens-born Trump held a “yuge” lead, according to the poll, getting the support of 45% of registered Republicans in the Empire State — a level more than double of his next closest competitor.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich trailed far behind with 18% support each, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz got 11%.
Clinton, a former New York senator, also held a big lead over Sanders in New York State for the Democratic nomination.
Clinton got 55% of New York Democratic voters, compared with just 34% for Sanders. The former secretary of state outperformed Sanders among women and African-American voters. Sanders performed better with voters younger than 35.
“Hillary’s lead over Bernie among Democrats is unchanged since last month. She has the support of 55% of Democrats in every region of the state, leading him by 21 points in New York City, 24 points in the downstate suburbs and 19 points upstate. She leads by 10 points with men and 28 points with women,” Greenberg said. “While Sanders has a 17-point lead with Democrats under 35, Clinton leads by 39 points with those 55 and older.”
The New York primaries for both parties are on April 19.
The poll also showed that New Yorkers overwhelmingly think the U.S. Senate should act on an Obama Supreme Court nomination (67% to 28%), that the detention center in Guantanamo Bay should remain open (53% to 38%), but also found that New York State residents are split in their opinions over whether Apple and other technology companies should unlock phones belonging to terrorists.
