She hasn’t even officially jumped into the 2016 presidential race yet, but front-running Democrat Hillary Clinton is starting to lose her lead over two top Republicans, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.
Maybe worse, her lead over Bush among women, younger voters, Catholics, independents and Hispanics has plummeted, according to a new Zogby Analytics poll of 890 likely voters.
Overall, Clinton still leads every single Republican running. Over Bush, she has a 45 percent-37 percent lead, down from 49 percent to 34 percent in mid-December. Over Romney, she has a 46 percent to 37 percent lead, down from 49 percent to 33 percent.
“A lead is still a lead but her margins are narrowing among several key subgroups,” said pollster John Zogby in his analysis.
“For example, among women she now leads Bush 48 percent to 34 percent, where it was 55 percent to 30 percent just last month. Her leads have shrunk from 35 points to 16 points among 18-29 year olds, 28 points to 17 points among 30-49 year olds, 16 points to 10 points among independents, and 58 points to 24 points among Hispanics. She has actually gone from a 20 point lead among Catholics to a 6 point deficit,” said Zogby.
Just as significantly, he said, more undecideds who are now leaning in a direction chose GOP candidates.
“Essentially, Clinton simply running against herself is not doing well, certainly not enough to close any deal,” said the pollster who writes the weekly Secrets Obama Report Card.
Against the others, she leads Sen. Rand Paul by 14 points and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie by 12 points.
While the numbers may be a bit depressing for Clinton supporters, they are still lousy for Republicans, said Zogby.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
