Oklahoma poll: Cruz, Rubio close in on Trump, Clinton ahead of Sanders
A new poll from The Oklahoman gives an updated look at the political landscape after a primary and a caucus, giving Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton the top slot among voters. While Trump still leads at 30%, hit numbers have dropped 5% in just over a week with Ted Cruz at 25% and Marco Rubio rising to 21%.
The poll at a large margin of error at 4.81% on the GOP side, putting Cruz and Trump in an essential tie with Rubio close behind.
“Early on, Trump’s been able to channel the anger and frustration felt among Republicans toward President Obama, but anger and frustration can only take you so far in a presidential race,” said Bill Shapard, founder of SoonerPoll, an Oklahoma City-based firm that conducted the poll.
From their coverage: “…former first lady Hillary Clinton led with 41.5 percent while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders garnered 28.1 percent. But a large percentage of Democratic and independent voters still haven’t settled on a candidate, with 28.1 percent saying they remain undecided just weeks before Oklahoma’s March 1 primary election.”
“Ben Carson, who came in a distant fourth, continued to slip in this week’s poll, falling from 8 percent on Jan. 23 to 5.7 percent this week. No other Republican candidate drew more than 5 percent support, and 7.7 percent of GOP respondents said they were still undecided.”
No surprise that young voters prefer Sanders over Clinton.
Other notables from the poll are listed below. Oklahoma’s primary is set for March 1.
The poll was conducted between Saturday and Tuesday, and included responses from 414 Republicans, 360 Democrats and 22 independents, all likely voters. The poll has a margin of error of 4.81 percent on the Republican side and 5.01 percent on the Democratic side.
- Trump performed best among self-described moderate to liberal Republicans. Among liberal Republicans, Trump garnered 33.5 percent, and among moderate Republicans, he took 36.9 percent.
- Cruz led the pack among self-described conservative Republicans, where he received 28.8 percent.
- About 51 percent of female Democratic and independent voters said they planned to support Clinton. Sanders held just 16.8 percent support among women, and 32.1 percent said they were undecided.