US Presidential Elections News: Clinton, Trump Ahead In The Polls After December Debates
The presidential debates for the Republican and the Democratic Parties have concluded for this year, and candidates will be returning to the debates in January 2016. After the Democratic Party presidential debate last December 19, voters showed that they shifted favor to Hillary Clinton, over Bernie Sanders, according to a CNN poll conducted after the debate. On the Republican side, real estate mogul Donald Trump maintained his lead over several other Republican candidates after the December 15 debate, according to the CNN poll.
The December debates are the last debates for the year and given the candidates' performance during the debates, CNN polled over 1,000 adults randomly sampled across the nation. According to the poll results, there was a marked shift to support Clinton after the debate. When voters were interviewed prior to the debate, 45% supported Clinton while 37% supported Sanders. This changed after the debate however. Among those who were polled, Clinton's lead over Sanders increased, with 60% showing support for Clinton as opposed to Sanders' 27%.
The poll also asked which among the Democratic candidates are better at handling specific national issues. According to poll results, while Sanders' campaign in addressing economic issues got a boost after the debate, poll participants still think that Clinton is the better candidate to tackle economic issues, with 47% supporting Clinton, compared to Sanders' 39%. Foreign policy is one area where Clinton has a huge lead over Sanders, 72% vs. 15%. The other thorny issue is gun policy and even here, 51% of poll participants said Clinton can handle the issue better, compared to 30% who said that Sanders can do it better.
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Overall, Clinton still topped Sanders among registered voters who are either Democrats or Democrat-leaning independent voters with 50%, compared to Sanders' 34%.
After the Republican debates, it seems that Trump still leads the Republican race. Senator Ted Cruz however, is inching his way to second place, but according to the poll, his numbers are still small compared to Trump's. The poll results showed that 39% of Republican and Republican-leaning independents supported Trump, while only 18% backed Cruz.
Trump has been consistently on top of the Republican race since July. The poll also showed that most poll participants felt that Trump can handle the more important issues better than the other candidates. In the area of economic issues, Trump got 57%, while Cruz only got 8% and the other candidates trailing still. On illegal immigration, 55% say that Trump can handle it better, while only 15% support Cruz. ISIS is the other area of concern where Trump leads with 47%, trailed by Cruz at 21%.
