New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton each lead the fields of potential Republican and Democratic primary opponents for the 2016 presidential nomination, a new poll found.
The CNN/ORC poll released Friday found that 24 percent of Republicans and Independents who are likely to vote Republican in the next presidential election would back Christie. That’s an increase of 7 percentage points from the last CNN poll that included the question in September. Thirteen percent, meanwhile, said they would back Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in the GOP Republican primary followed by 11 percent for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), and 10 percent for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
No other Republican listed in the poll got double digit support. The poll found that 9 percent of voters in the 2016 GOP primary would vote for Rubio. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush each got 7 percent support, the poll found and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), the runner up in the 2012 Republican primary, got 6 percent support.
For the 2016 Democratic primary, 63 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents said they would back Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary, the poll found. Just 12 percent said they would back Vice President Joe Biden in a 2016 primary. Behind Clinton and Biden, 7 percent said they would vote for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) if she decided to run for president in 2016, 5 percent said they would support New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and 2 percent said they would back Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted Nov. 18 through Nov. 20 among 843 adults. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points and a margin of error for just Republicans or just Democrats was 5 percentage points.
