New Polling Shows Difficulties for Democrats, Especially Clinton, in Battleground States


pollingA new poll from Quinnipiac University shows the top three Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), trailing three of the top Republicans in the key battleground states of Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia. All three of those states went in President Obama’s column in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. Virginia was a Republican state until recently and is now firmly purple.

The Quinnipiac poll polled Sanders, Biden, and Clinton in match-ups against former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL), Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Governor Scott Walker (R-WI). Despite leading in the polls, Donald Trump was not polled in the match-ups.

The poll shows difficulties for the Democrats, at least for now, in the battleground states. None of the Democrats won any of the match-ups against the Republicans in any state. While some are technically too-cl0se-to-call, the Democrat remains on the losing side.

Many of the candidates remain unknowns in the crucial states.

Clinton and Bush are underwater when it comes to their favorability ratings. However, Bush does have a four percentage point advantage for favorability in Virginia. Clinton is seen as untrustworthy by voters in all three states, while Bush is seen as trustworthy.

There is good news for Sanders and Biden though. On trustworthiness, Sanders recorded the lowest numbers of being untrustworthy, in addition to being seen as trustworthy. Biden is also seen as trustworthy and two of the three states said he cares their problems and needs. Sanders is also seen as caring, but his numbers are lower than Biden. This is due to larger amounts of people not knowing about Sanders.

Clinton is seen as having strong leadership qualities as is Sanders. Biden is seen as having strong leadership qualities by one state, tied in another, and not in the third state.

On the Republican side, the candidates polled were seen as caring about their problems and needs. The exception would be Bush, however. He was underwater in Iowa and Colorado, but Virginia saw him as caring. All three of the Republicans tested were seen as strong leaders, in addition. Bush recorded higher numbers on the leadership question than Clinton, however there were differences in the polling size. Every person was asked about Clinton’s leadership skills, but only a section of those polled were asked about Bush. This has the possibility of distorting Bush and Clinton’s numbers and making it an unfair comparison.


About Tyler

Tyler is the chief media reporter for TKNN, with the news organization since its founding in November of 2010. He has previously served as chief political reporter and chief political anchor for TKNN.

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