Clinton lead reduced to 10 points in presidential race: Poll

By NewsGram Staff Writer

Washington: According to a new poll Hillary Clinton's lead for party nomination in the 2016 presidential race fell to just 10 points, her advantage against the top Republican contenders has now vanished.

Vice President Joe Biden, who is still mulling a presidential bid, stood at 20 percent, up 6 points in the last month. In the general election match-ups, Clinton runs about evenly with Republican front runner Donald Trump with 48 percent backing each.

A new CNN/ORC poll found Clinton with 37 percent support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, down 10 points since August, followed by self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders at 27 percent. But former neurosurgeon Ben Carson leads Clinton by a significant margin of 51 percent to 46 percent, while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush narrowly leads her 49 to 47 percent.

Facing Trump, Clinton still carries women by a large, though tighter, margin. In August, 60 percent of women favoured Clinton to 37 percent for Trump, but that's narrowed slightly to 55 percent Clinton, 41 percent Trump now. Clinton's advantage among women against Trump is fuelled by independent women, despite that group shifting away from Clinton in the head-to-head against Bush.

The poll suggests Republican women have consolidated their support around their party's front-runners in the last month, and are now more apt to back both Bush and Trump than they were a month ago.

At the same time, the near-universal support for Clinton among Democratic women has softened slightly, bringing it more in-line with her support among Democratic men.

Within the Democratic party, Clinton's support among moderates holds at 47 percent, while among liberals, it has plummeted to just 23 percent. Biden tops Trump by 10 points (54 percent to 44 percent among registered voters), leads Bush by 8 points (52 percent to 44 percent) and is 3 points behind Carson (50 percent Carson to 47 percent Biden).

Sanders has increased his share of the liberal vote (from 42 percent to 49 percent), while falling 9 points among moderates (from 24 percent to 15 percent). Meanwhile, Biden has gained ground in both groups.

But there was some good news also for Clinton in the poll. Most Democrats still say that Clinton shall be party's eventual nominee and the more enthusiastic Democratic voters are more apt to be Clinton backers.

(With inputs from IANS)