A new national survey of voters from Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling shows likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leading the microwaved circus peanut known as Donald J. Trump by 4 points — and by more, if you exclude small-party candidates.
Hillary Clinton leads Trump 42-38, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 4% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2%. In a match up just between Clinton and Trump, her lead expands to 47-41. That’s because supporters of Johnson and Stein would prefer her over Trump 36-18. Although there’s been a lot of talk about third party candidates drawing support away from Trump, they’re actually taking a little bit more from Clinton at this point.
Another matchup result that’s likely to buoy Bernie Sanders to keep it up until the Democratic Convention in July finds him, once again, faring better than Clinton against Orange Baby Mussolini:
Bernie Sanders continues to do the best in general election match ups, leading Trump 47-37 with Johnson at 3% and Stein at 1% in the full field, and leading Trump 50-39 head to head. The difference between how Clinton and Sanders fare against Trump comes almost completely among young people. In the full field Clinton leads 46-24, but Sanders leads 64-18 with voters between 18 and 29. In one on ones with Trump, Clinton leads 49-27, but Sanders leads 70-14.
Based on one result, Clinton needs to work hard to win over Bernie’s millennials. Another suggests it can be done, to a significant degree.
The undecideds in a Clinton-Trump match up right now support Sanders 41-8 in a match up with Trump, so the bad news for Clinton is that she has work to do to win over a certain segment of Sanders supporters in the general, but the good news is that they are at least somewhat Democratic leaning and she has the potential to increase her advantage over Trump by a couple points if she is eventually able to get them in her corner. Democrats lead a generic question about which party people would vote for President 49-41, so that may be somewhat of a forecast for where the race could be headed if/when Sanders supporters unify around Clinton for the general.
And now — yes, we buried the lead, we must admit — the polling firm that made Deez Nuts famous has another telling set of survey results to share with you:
