Poll: Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by double digits in Indiana
Just days ahead of Indiana's crucial primary, Donald Trump has taken a double-digit lead over Ted Cruz, with a majority of Republican voters looking unfavorably at the recent collaborative efforts between Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, according to a new poll.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist survey, released Sunday, found Trump with a 15-point advantage over his closest rival among likely GOP primary voters in Indiana: Trump sits at 49 percent of support, while Cruz has 34 percent. Kasich trails far behind at 13 percent.
Fifty-eight percent of likely Republican voters also disapprove of the alliance between Cruz and Kasich, who announced their collaborative efforts last week. To prevent the current GOP front-runner from reaching the 1,237 delegates needed for the party's nomination, Kasich agreed to reshuffle his resources to Oregon and New Mexico, leaving Indiana to Cruz. But Republicans in the Hoosier state didn't take kindly to that strategy: Only 34 percent said they approved of the two campaigns' cooperation.
Still, about 63 percent of likely GOP primary voters said that the Kasich-Cruz alliance would not factor into their votes.
Among likely Democratic primary voters, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by just four percent -- a number within the Democratic survey's margin of error of 4.6 percentage points. Clinton has 50 percent of support while Sanders has 46 percent.
In a general election contest, however, Clinton would lose to all three Republican candidates in Indiana. Trump would beat the former secretary of state 48 percent to 41 percent; Cruz would do the same, 50 percent to 43 percent. Kasich would dominate over Clinton 56 percent to 37 percent.
Meanwhile, Indiana would go to Sanders in a match-up against Cruz (48 to 45 percent) and the Vermont senator would nearly tie the other two Republican contenders.
Indiana, which has 57 delegates at stake, votes Tuesday.
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll was conducted April 26-28, including 645 likely GOP primary voters and 449 likely Democratic primary voters. The margin of error for Republicans was 3.9 percentage points, while for the Democrats it was 4.6 percentage points.