Donald Trump enters the final stretch before Tuesday’s Republican primary in Pennsylvania with a big lead over rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich, a new poll shows.
According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday, the leading GOP presidential hopeful has an 18-point lead over his opponent from Texas and a 21-point lead over Kasich, the two-term governor from Ohio.
Trump also carries 52 percent of the vote among men in Pennsylvania and voters without a college degree, more than either of his opponents. The billionaire does the worst of the three candidates among women and college-educated voters.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads rival Bernie Sanders by 15 percentage points, 55 to 40 percent.
Sanders has an edge over Clinton among voters age 45 and under (60 percent), independents (55 percent), men (49 percent) and Pennsylvania Democrats who describe themselves as “very liberal” (58 percent).
Clinton, meanwhile, leads the Vermont senator among African-Americans (67 percent), voters age 45 and older (66 percent) and women (62 percent).
The poll also weighed Clinton and Sanders against their Republican opponents in hypothetical general election matchups. Clinton leads both Trump (54 to 39 percent) and Cruz (52 to 41 percent), but loses by three percentage points to Kasich (48 to 45 percent).
Sanders, meanwhile, leads all three GOP candidates. The 74-year-old democratic socialist leads Trump by a striking 20 percentage points, Cruz by 22 and Kasich by six points.
The NBC News/WSJ/Marist survey of 2,606 registered U.S. voters was conducted April 18-20. Results contain an overall margin of error plus or minus 1.9 percent.
