Though Hillary Clinton still remains the Democratic primary favorite, Joe Biden does better against Republican candidates in three big swing states.
According to a new Quinnipiac University swing-state poll released Thursday of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Vice President Joe Biden is running as strong or slightly stronger than Hillary Clinton in possible general election matchups against Republican candidates Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. However, the vice president has not made his presidential aspirations clear and remains out of the public eye mulling a 2016 run.
Since 1960, no presidential candidate has won the White House without taking at least two of the aforementioned three states.
Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio continue to post stronger numbers than Trump against Clinton or Biden.
However, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire businessman Donald Trump continue to lead their respective party’s primaries. They do however have the worst overall favorability ratings among all voters and the lowest scores for being honest and trustworthy.
In Florida, the state’s former governor Jeb Bush tops Clinton 49 percent to 38 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also leads Clinton, 51 percent to 39 percent, while Trump’s 43 percent bests Clinton’s 41 percent. In addition, Bush leads Biden in Florida, 51 percent to 38 percent, while Rubio tops Biden 48 percent to 42 percent and Biden gets 45 percent to Trump’s 42 percent.
Again in Ohio, Clinton falters and Biden holds strong. In a general election, Clinton would barely beat Bush, 41 percent to 39 percent. Rubio would best Clinton, however, 42 percent to 40 percent, while Clinton’s 43 percent would top Trump’s 38 percent. Biden, however, beats Bush (42 percent to 39 percent), Rubio (42 percent to 41 percent) and Trump (48 percent to 38 percent).
Finally, the results are similar in a hypothetical general election matchup in Pennsylvania: Clinton would not beat Bush nor Rubio (though beat Trump), while Bush and Rubio would beat out Biden by 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Biden would however top Trump by 8 percentage points.
The telephone-based polls of roughly 1,000 Florida voters, 1,000 Ohio voters and 1,000 Pennsylvania voters was conducted Aug. 7-18, with each group of voters carrying a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
