Hillary Clinton’s favorability down, but she still leads Republicans in 2016 match-ups

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken a bit of a hit as she deals with fallout from the revelation of her use of a private email system while in office and foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, but she still leads a handful of head-to-head match-ups with her would-be Republican rivals in 2016.

In a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent have a favorable opinion of her and 42 percent have an unfavorable opinion, compared to a positive 44 percent/36 percent split in March, and the percentage of voters who gave her high marks for being honest and straightforward is down 13 points from a year ago.

But Mrs. Clinton still leads several of the 2016 GOP contenders, with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky coming the closest to her and trailing by several points.

She also leads former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida by 6 points, 49 percent to 43 percent margins. She leads Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker by 10 points, 50 percent to 40 percent.

And among Democrats, Mrs. Clinton has an 81 percent/6 percent favorable/unfavorable split, similar to the 82 percent/4 percent split in March.

Fifty-six percent of Democrats said they’re not concerned about finding a candidate to challenge Mrs. Clinton, compared to 43 percent who say they’d prefer a challenger. Last month, 61 percent said a challenger wasn’t a concern and 38 percent said they’d like to see one.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent, recently announced that he, too, will seek the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

Among all voters, 51 percent gave her high marks for being knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency, 44 percent for being effective and getting things done, and 43 percent for being compassionate enough to understand average people.

Her worst cores on 11 different presidential qualities were bringing real change to the country (35 percent), sharing your positions on the issues (35 percent), and being honest and straightforward (25 percent).

The “honest and straightforward” mark is a 13-point drop since June 2014.

The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted April 26-30 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The margin of error among 273 Democratic primary voters is plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.