Poll: GOP Leaders Running Neck-and-Neck with Clinton

Suffolk University reports:

A Suffolk University/USA TODAY national poll of likely voters shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump solidly ahead in their respective nomination fights eight weeks before the Iowa caucuses. However, Democrat Clinton’s onetime lead in one-to-one matchups against GOP candidates has eroded, and a small polling subsample showed that two-thirds of Trump voters would continue to support him as an independent candidate if he were to leave the Republican Party.

Despite a commanding lead over her Democratic rivals—Clinton (56 percent), Sanders (29 percent) and Martin O’Malley (4 percent), with 11 percent undecided—the race gets much tighter for Clinton in potential head-to-head general election matchups with the four leading Republican candidates, according to the poll. Each of these matchups is a statistical dead heat given the poll’s margin of error:

Marco Rubio (48 percent) tops Clinton (45 percent)
Clinton (48 percent)—Trump (44 percent)
Clinton (46 percent)—Ben Carson (45 percent)
Clinton (47 percent)—Ted Cruz (45 percent)

One close national race.