Quinnipiac Poll: Hillary Clinton Would Beat Top 2016 GOP Presidential Picks
If the 2016 presidential elections were held now, Hillary Clinton would win in match-ups against potential GOP candidates Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, according to results of a national Quinnipiac poll released on Thursday.
The former Secretary of State beats Christie, 45-37 percent; Rubio, 50-34 percent; and Ryan 50-38 percent. However, Democrats Vice President Joe Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would both lose in a potential match-up with New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie, according to the poll. =
"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would start a 2016 presidential campaign with enormous advantages," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in a statement of the results released on Thursday. "She obviously is by far the best known and her more than 20 years in the public spotlight allows her to create a very favorable impression on the American people. But it is worth noting that she had very good poll numbers in 2006 looking toward the 2008 election, before she faced a relative unknown in Barack Obama," he added.
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Clinton is yet to declare whether or not she has any intention to campaign for the presidency again, but a Real Clear Politics report on Thursday suggests she is likely to make an announcement about what she plans to do in 2014.
"In my view, we will know if she's running by mid-2014," said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum in the report. "And she certainly has that kind of space and time to decide."
In a potential match-up between Christie and Biden, the poll shows Christie getting 43 percent of the votes compared to 40 percent for Biden, and Christie would leave Cuomo in the dust, 45-28 percent, according to the poll.
Biden, however, would beat Rubio 45-38 percent, and best Ryan 45-42 percent. But Cuomo would lose to Ryan, 42-37 percent, while Cuomo and Rubio are locked in a tie with 37 percent each.
The poll results also show growing dissatisfaction among voters with the job performance of President Barack Obama and Congress. A majority of voters disapprove of the job both Democrats and Republicans are doing in Congress. Some 60 percent of voters indicated that they disapproved of the work Democrats are doing in Congress, while 71 percent of them said they disapproved of Republicans in Congress as well. President Obama's approval rating fell by one percent from 46 to 45 percent.
The poll was conducted from February 27 to March 4. Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,944 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points.
