Poll: Donald Trump takes commanding lead in Connecticut
With a resounding victory in New York under his belt, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taking an early lead in another northeastern state: Connecticut, where a new poll has him beating his closest rival by 20 points.
A Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday shows Trump leading among likely Republican primary voters with 48 percent, compared to Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 28 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 19 percent. Just five percent of voters say they are still undecided ahead of the April 26 primary.
Trump is the clear favorite across nearly all demographic groups, except among Republican voters 18 to 44 years old, who favor Kasich at 39 percent. Trump has 32 percent of support among that age group, while Cruz comes in with 27 percent. The New York billionaire, however, leads among older voters.
Just off a big win in New York among Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also leads in Connecticut with a 51-42 percent lead over rival Bernie Sanders.
Clinton's lead in the state is bolstered by her support among black likely Democratic primary voters, where she has a 41-point advantage. African American voters back her 66-25 percent.
The former first lady also leads among women, 55-38 percent, while men are divided at 50 percent for Sanders and 45 percent for Clinton.
Sanders' base of support comes from voters that are 18 to 34 years old: Seventy-three percent would vote for Sanders compared to 26 percent that would choose Clinton.
The two Democratic candidates virtually tie when it comes to favorability ratings: Sixty-seven percent of Democratic voters have a strong or somewhat favorable opinion of Clinton, while 66 percent do so for Sanders. Twenty-seven percent, however, view Clinton as somewhat or strongly unfavorable; only 18 percent have that same belief of the Vermont senator.
Quinnipiac conducted its survey from April 12-18 among 823 likely Republican primary voters in Connecticut, with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The university polled 1,037 likely Democrats, with the margin of error of three percentage points.
Connecticut voters will cast their ballots April 26.