Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton would lose Missouri to every GOP presidential candidate pitted against her in a new survey conducted by Public Policy Polling.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio performs best against Clinton, winning by 15 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush performs worst, winning by only 7 percentage points. Donald Trump leads Clinton by 9 percentage points, Carly Fiorina had a 10 percentage point margin of victory, and Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky each won by 12.
Missouri went blue for President Obama in 2008, and also features a Democratic governor and one Democratic senator. But GOP nominee Mitt Romney won the state handily in 2012. While the Republican primary voters in the “Show Me” state have yet to pick a candidate, the state looks poised to stay red in 2016.
Trump holds a large lead in the state among the Republicans running for president at 23 percent. Bush and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson come in tied for second place at 11 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 10 percent, Cruz at 9 percent, and Walker at eight percentage points. Fiorina received the support of 7 percent of those surveyed.
The poll found that “Jim Gilmore and Lindsey Graham have literally no supporters,” but that Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be in the worst shape in Missouri among the competitive candidates.
“Rand Paul is really falling apart,” PPP’s release explained. “His favorability is under water with Missouri Republicans at 36/44, and only 4 percent support him for the nomination. It used to be that Chris Christie was the only major candidate we found with negative favorability numbers within the primary electorate, but Paul’s joined him on that list. There might not be anyone worse off than Christie though. He has a 28/51 favorability rating and now polls at just 1% for the nomination, the same thing we found for him in Iowa.”
Other interesting takeaways from PPP’s Missouri poll include that two-thirds of all respondents want to raise the minimum wage, and a majority of Republicans surveyed supported raising it to “at least $10 an hour.” Carson, who polls second behind Trump in Missouri, has expressed support for raising the federal minimum wage.
