Mitch Perry
Although he’s hardly breaking away, Jeb Bush leads the GOP 2016 presidential field in a new CNN/ORC International Poll released Monday morning. And Marco Rubio appears to finally be gaining traction.
However, both would be crushed by Hillary Clinton if the election were to be held now.
Bush tops the GOP field with 17 percent, followed by Scott Walker at 12 percent.
Rubio is tied with Rand Paul in third place in the poll with 11 percent. That’s a noticeable improvement for Rubio, who has been mired in single digits in most national polls so far in 2015.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is at 9 percent and Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is at 7 percent. Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are now well behind the leader at 4 percent each.
Clinton looks strong in this poll, coming a week after she formally announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination.
Rubio does the best against Clinton — and he still loses by 14 percentage points to her, 55-41 percent. Bush trails Clinton by 17 points, 56 percent to 39 percent. Christie and Paul fall 19 points behind Clinton, each putting up 39 percent to Clinton’s 58 percent. Huckabee, Walker, Carson and Cruz each trail Clinton by more than 20 points.
In the poll, Bush does well on a variety of attributes: He is most often selected as the candidate with the right experience to be president (27 percent), as the one with the best chance of beating the Democratic nominee in the general election next November (26 percent), and as the strongest leader in the large field of GOP contenders (21 percent). He is also more often seen as the candidate with the clearest vision for the country’s future (19 percent), who cares the most about people (18 percent), and who most closely shares values of those polled(19 percent).
Interestingly, Bush and Rubio tie as the candidate who best represents the future of the Republican Party, with both getting 18 percent. Paul is next at 10 percent, the only other candidate to reach double figures in that question.
On the Democratic side, Clinton is easily dominating the field, with 69 percent support. Next is Vice President Joe Biden at 11 percent. Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is at 5 percent, former Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb is at 3 percent, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffee and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley are at 1 percent.
The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted by telephone, April 16-19, among a random national sample of 1,018 adult Americans. Results for the full poll have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Among the 435 Republicans and independents who lean Republican, it is 4.5 points, and among the 458 Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, it is 4.5 points.
