A national poll released on Friday finds former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a commanding lead over her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 while Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is inching ahead on the Republican side.
The CNN/ORC poll unveiled on Friday shows Clinton far ahead of the Democratic field with 63 percent. Vice President Joe Biden places second with 12 percent while U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stands in third with 7 percent. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo takes 5 percent followed by Gov. Martin OMalley of Maryland with 2 percent.
When Clinton is taken out of the mix, Biden propels ahead of the rest of the Democrats, leading the pack with 43 percent. Warren takes second in that scenario with 17 percent followed by Cuomo with 15 percent. OMalley remains in single digits at 6 percent.
Clinton has overwhelmingly led national polls on the Democratic side in 2016 with Biden generally in a distant second. When Clinton is left out of the equation, Biden leads the Democratic primary field.
On the Republican side, Christie, who was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term earlier in the month, leads the field with 24 percent. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., takes second with 13 percent followed by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., in third with 11 percent. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also places in double digits with 10 percent. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., garners 9 pecent followed by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas with 7 percent. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida takes 6 percent, tying him with former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Christie is inching up in the national polls following his big win for a second term. In a CNN/ORC poll taken in early September, Christie led with 17 percent followed by Ryan with 16 percent, Paul with 13 percent and Bush with 10 percent.
The poll of 374 Democrats was taken from Nov. 18-20 and had a margin of error of +/- 5 percent. The poll of 418 Republicans was taken during the same period and also had a margin of error of +/- 5 percent.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com.
