Connecticut Republicans would send Donald Trump to the White House, while Connecticut Democrats favor former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll.
In a poll of 1,735 registered Connecticut voters, Trump tops the other 14 Republicans candidates with 34 percent of the vote. Clinton leads the race for the Democratic nomination with 37 percent of the vote. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders received 25 percent of the vote and Vice President Joe Biden received 18 percent of the vote, even though he hasn’t officially entered the race.
On the Republican side, Dr. Ben Carson gets 14 percent of Republican primary voters, followed by 11 percent for Carly Fiorina, 7 percent for Florida Senator Marco Rubio and 6 percent each for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. None of the other candidates top 4 percent and 9 percent of Republicans are still undecided.
“Connecticut Republicans apparently want an outsider, as Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina lead the field and get a combined total of 59 percent of the Republican primary vote. Establishment candidates such as Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio are in single digits,” Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said.
He said Trump does well with voters who don’t have a college education, but Trump is also doing well in a well-educated state like Connecticut.
“These numbers show that the juggernaut for Trump continues,” Schwartz said. “Not only is he leading, but in Connecticut he’s getting his best numbers yet.”
On the Democratic side, the poll says that even though Biden isn’t in the race, he would best all three of the current top Republican contenders in Connecticut in the General Election.
Clinton is ahead of Sanders by a 2-to-1 ratio among Democratic women and she would beat Trump, Carson, and Fiorina in a General Election in Connecticut. Sanders also would beat Carson, Fiorina, and Trump.
“A Trump-Clinton matchup would be a battle of two negatively viewed candidates. Clinton would come out ahead, but Trump is within single digits — 7 points,” Schwartz said.
Connecticut voters give Biden the best favorability rating of any of the candidates and Bush has one of the worst scores.
“Biden is clearly a stronger general election candidate than Clinton,” Schwartz said. “He would easily defeat Trump by double digits — 18 points. Clinton is in a close race with both Carson and Fiorina, while Biden would defeat both of them handily.”
Biden is the strongest General Election candidate in swing states that Quinnipiac University polls, Schwartz said.
He still loses in a primary to Clinton, but when it comes to the General Election “he is more electable at this point,” Schwartz said.
Connecticut voters give President Barack Obama a divided 48-49 percent approval rating, virtually unchanged from Quinnipiac University surveys over the last 18 months.
Voters oppose the nuclear deal with Iran 59-28 percent and say 59-30 percent that it will make the world less safe.
The poll has an overall 2.4-percent margin of error. The survey included 464 Republicans with a margin of error of 4.6 percent and 610 Democrats with a margin of error of 4 percent.
