Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont both top GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in head-to-head match-ups, while Mrs. Clinton is locked in much tighter contests against Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz, according to polling released Tuesday.
Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, led Mr. Trump by 8 points in the CNN/ORC poll, 52 percent to 44 percent, and Mr. Sanders led Mr. Trump by a 12-point margin, 55 percent to 43 percent.
But Mrs. Clinton trailed Mr. Rubio of Florida by 3 points, 50 percent to 47 percent, and trailed Mr. Cruz of Texas by 1 point, 49 percent to 48 percent.
Mr. Sanders, meanwhile, led Mr. Rubio by 8 points, 53 percent to 45 percent, and led Mr. Cruz by 17 points, 57 percent to 40 percent.
Mr. Trump, though, said he hasn’t even focused on Mrs. Clinton, yet.
“The one person that Hillary Clinton doesn’t want to run against is me, and I have that on good knowledge,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“I had one little skirmish with Hillary three weeks ago, and you saw what happened with that skirmish,” Mr. Trump said. “I will defeat Hillary, and we’re going to take a lot of Democrats and a lot of independents away, and we’re going to possibly win places like Michigan, New York — states that are not even in consideration and, by the way, these aren’t things that have been taken advantage of in the poll.”
“I will beat Hillary Clinton much more easily than anybody else,” he said.
Of the seven remaining presidential candidates on both sides, voters said Mr. Trump would do the best job handling the economy and immigration, and gave him narrow edges over Mrs. Clinton on terrorism and gun policy. Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, topped the field on health care, race relations, and foreign policy.
Overall, Mr. Sanders had the best favorability numbers of the seven remaining candidates, with a 57 percent/33 percent favorable/unfavorable split. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson topped the Republicans with a 44 percent/35 percent split.
Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, had a negative 42 percent/55 percent split and Mr. Trump had a negative 37 percent/60 percent split.
Mr. Rubio had a 44 percent/38 percent split, Ohio Gov. John Kasich had a 41 percent/22 percent split, and Mr. Cruz had a 36 percent/48 percent split.
Among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, Mr. Carson had the best numbers, with a 70 percent/18 percent split, followed by Mr. Rubio with a 68 percent/23 percent split. Mr. Trump had a positive 65 percent/32 percent split, Mr. Cruz had a 64 percent/30 percent split, and Mr. Kasich had a 59 percent/16 percent split.
Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, Mr. Sanders had an 85 percent/10 percent split and Mrs. Clinton had a 78 percent/19 percent split.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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