Mitch Perry
A new Quinnipiac poll released Thursday shows that Scott Walker and Jeb Bush continue to stand above the rest in the early going of the 2016 GOP presidential field.
Walker comes in at 18% and Bush follows with 16% in the national poll released Thursday morning.
Then there’s a big drop, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied at 8% each. Retired physician Ben Carson (who has now apologized for saying that going to prison makes a man gay), is at 7%, with Rand Paul and Ted Cruz at 6%.
Marco Rubio is at 5%.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to dominate, leading U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren 56% to 14%. Vice President Joe Biden gets 10% support, and Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is at 4%.
If former Secretary of State Clinton does not run, Biden gets 35%, with 25% for Warren and 7% for Sanders, with 25 percent undecided.
“It’s Gov. Scott Walker and former Gov. Jeb Bush head-to-head for the GOP and Hillary Clinton virtually unchallenged among Democrats. Her 4-to-1 margin over Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 5-to-1 lead over Vice President Joseph Biden say it’s hers if she wants it,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
The poll was conducted Feb. 26 to March 2, before the story about Clinton not using a government email address as Secretary of State surfaced.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,286 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points. The survey includes 554 Republicans with a margin of error of +/- 4.2 percentage points and 493 Democrats with a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones.
