Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who announced her candidacy for the White House on Sunday, is already leading the two other candidates who have officially announced they are in the race, a new poll has found.
According to a survey by Rasmussen Reports of 1,000 likely voters conducted on April 9 and 12, Clinton has 47 percent support in a match-up with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who gets 37 percent support. Eleven percent say they would choose some other candidate, while 5 percent are undecided.
In a match-up with Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, Clinton has a nine-point lead of 47 percent to 38 percent. As in the case of Paul, 11 percent say they would prefer a different candidate, while 4 percent are undecided.
Clinton also has a stronger standing among those of her own party than do Paul or Cruz among their own. She gets 82 percent support of Democrats, while roughly 70 percent of Republicans support Paul and Cruz. At the same time, Clinton is broadly tied with the two GOP hopefuls among independents.
Among women, Clinton has an even stronger lead against the two GOP candidates. She leads Cruz 49 percent to 36 percent and Paul by 49 percent to 35 percent. She also has an overwhelming lead among voters under 40 in both match-ups, but the margins are tighter among older voters, the survey found.
The survey also looked at voters' views of the campaign process and found that 82 percent of all voters say they are following news about the 2016 presidential race, including 40 percent who say they are following it very closely. But 72 percent of those who are following the news the closest think the campaign season lasts too long.
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