Pennsylvania voters have taken a shine to Chris Christie. The newly re-elected Governor of neighboring New Jersey was ahead in a GOP primary and a general election matchup in the Keystone state.
He lead former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 48% to 44% in a head to head matchup according to the latest survey from Public Policy Polling.
It’s the first time any 2016 poll has shown someone other than Clinton winning Pa.
“Pennsylvania really shows how wide a disparity there is between the appeal of Chris Christie and any of the other Republican Presidential candidates,” wrote PPP President Dean Debnam. “Christie could win the state while the other hopefuls would do as bad or worse than Mitt Romney did there.”
Christie held Clinton to a 4 point lead among women while he leads men by 12 points.
He peeled away 22% of Democrats versus just 12% of Republicans for Clinton.
Clinton beat all of the other prospective GOP 2016 hopefuls tested by PPP. She lead former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by 4 points, 48% to 44%; Kentucky Senator Rand Paul by 8 points, 51% to 43%; former Pa. Senator Rick Santorum by 9 points, 51% to 42%; and Texas Senator Ted Cruz by 12 points, 53% to 41%.
Both Christie and Clinton enjoyed leads in their respective parties’ primaries.
Christie took 26% of GOP voters, versus 16% for Cruz, 14% for Paul, 10% for Bush, 8% for Santorum, 6% for Florida Senator Marco Rubio, 5% for 2012 VP candidate Paul Ryan, and 3% each for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. 9% were undecided or supported someone else.
Christie’s edge came among self-identified liberal and moderate Republicans.
Clinton, meanwhile, enjoyed a dominant lead in a hypothetical Democratic primary. She took 61% of the vote to 13% for Vice President Joe Biden, 11% for Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, 3% for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, 2% for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. 9% were undecided or supported someone else.
70% of Democratic women backed Clinton as did 52% of men. She enjoyed a 10 point advantage among voters 46 and older.
Note: Wednesday’s PPP survey announcement includes 3 polls: 1 of registered voters, one of Democrats, and one of Republicans. This article cites figures from all three.
PPP surveyed 436 Pa. Democrats and 491 Republicans from Nov. 22 to 25 via IVR. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.7% for the Dems sample and 4.4% for the GOP sample. The pollster surveyed 693 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7%.
PPP is a Democratic pollster, although its polls were found to be among the most accurate in the 2012 cycle.
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9 Responses
Seriously — you claim to be left leaning and would vote for Christie over Clinton? You obviously have never been in NJ to witness the phont he is. He’s about as moderate as Attila the Hun. The only reason he was reelected with a huge margin is the legislative Dems here are in bed with him. No idea why but the state is behind the rest of the Northeast in recovery both jobs and financial. The voters who elected him with 60% of the vote, voted 60% to raise the minimum wage that he vetoed! Every poll shows that NJ voters are opposed to his policies but voted for him because they like his bluntness! Too bad they don’t actually look at his policies. He vetoed a necessary transportation tunnel after 500 million was spent and now complains about why commuters to NYC have a problem. I wish he would quit (and may have to) to run for President so we can get rid of him!
They said that John McCain would appeal to large numbers of Democrats too. But that disappeared overnight as soon as he became the opponent of the Democrats’ nominee. I don’t know yet if Christie can win or not; I just know history has shown that the Republicans don’t do well when they choose their candidate based on who they think the other side will like.
What people don’t realize is that Christie will win the philly suburbs bringing those republicans home. I also believe he will get a fair number of democrats who have Clinton fatigue and the baggage that goes with it. Pa could be back in play,
There is absolutely ZERO chance that Christie could come close to defeating Clinton in PA.
The Dem voter registration that would occur in PA with Clinton on the ballot would be epic, especially among female voters.
What you don’t realize is that Christine will have to “run to the right” to even have a chance in the primary! He may even have to run against Ted Cruz and his craziness.
What is Christine going to say about women, taking gov’t handouts, charter schools and the overall economy?
Christie may have some name recognition, but the average Pennsylvanian knows nothing about his agenda or philosophy, which are pretty mainstream GOP (despite everything the GOP will tell us.)
There’s also the wealth of coverage Christie has gotten through the SEPA media market
I live in PA, and this is who I’m voting for in 2016. It will be my first election I can vote in (I’m almost 17 now), and while I am a slightly left-leaning modrate according to online studies; he’s the guy I like. I’ll join the Republican party so I can vote for him in the primary and hopefully then the general election. I am actually fairly conservative on most issues, but I can’t stand the lack of compassion among many conservatives plus I’m environmentally liberal. I think Christie fits my ideal candidate as good as anyone.
Between Obamacare, foreign policy issues (AKA Iran), and abortion I just can’t bring myself to vote for Clinton or any of the other liberal Democrats. Maybe if they’d run a moderate, but otherwise I’ll go Republican even if it’s a Ted Cruz type (I hope not).
I have to imagine there’s a bit of a high-water mark here with Cristie. While I won’t deny he could compete in Pennsylvania, the Democratic brand is down AND he just cruised to an easy win in neighboring New Jersey.
Still, not good news for Democrats. But polls this far out should be taken with a few thousand grains of salt.