A national poll pitting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a president race found Clinton triumphing over a fractured GOP.
If matched up in 2016, 44% of Americans in a new NBC News poll said they’d vote for the former first lady and Democratic senator from New York while just 34% said they’d vote for the Republican governor.
Republicans polled were split about a hypothetical Christie bid—just 32% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents said they’d vote for Christie in a GOP presidential primary; another 31% said they’d prefer another Republican to run.
Across the aisle, Democrats were united at the possibility of a Clinton candidacy—66% said they’d back her in a presidential primary.
The presidential election is more than 1,000 days away but both are oft-discussed 2016 candidates and both are launching a charm offensive—Clinon calling for unity at speeches around the country and Christie taking a victory lap on national television—but demographics already appear to be on Clinton’s side. African Americans, young voters, and Latinos all say they’d vote for Clinton, while white, older, and wealthy voters support Christie.
Geography helps Christie in the Northeast, where 57% of Republicans would support him in a primary, but hurts in the Midwest, South, and West, where pluralities would support another candidate over him. Clinton, however, holds onto the a lead in every region—52% of Northeastern voters, 43% of Western voters, 43% of Southern voters, and 41% of Midwestern voters support her.
The poll was conducted from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10 and surveyed 1,003 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
Jane Timm