A new poll from NBC News suggests other high-profile Republicans would perform better in a general election against Democrat Hillary Clinton than would presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
While Clinton bests Trump 48 percent to 43 percent in a head-to-head match-up (and still remains 3 points ahead when Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green party nominee Jill Stein are included), Clinton loses to both House speaker Paul Ryan and Ohio governor John Kasich in hypothetical general-election contests. Ryan would edge out Clinton 47 percent to 45 percent, while Kasich would get 50 percent to Clinton’s 42 percent. A third Trump alternative, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, would run even with Clinton at 45 percent.
The NBC poll’s findings are similar to a poll of key swing states released last week, which found Trump losing to Clinton in the seven states of Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Trump would almost certainly have to win most of those states to win the White House. But Kasich and Ryan perform better than Trump in all of those states, even beating Clinton in several of them.
Read the full results of the NBC poll here.
