By Joe Ragusa
CARBONDALE – The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University has released a new presidential poll ahead of the Illinois Primary in March.
On the Democratic side, it shows Hillary Clinton with a 19 percent lead over Bernie Sanders.
SIU Professor Charlie Leonard said Sanders is winning big with younger voters.
“But then it evens out and as the voters get older, presumably they’re more familiar with Hillary Clinton. She’s been in our politics a long time,” Leonard said. “That’s a pretty comfortable lead among the older folks for Clinton over Sanders and those are the folks who are more likely to turn out.”
Leonard said Clinton also holds a lead with minority voters over Sanders.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump has a 13 percent lead over Ted Cruz. Leonard said he was expecting Illinois’ traditionally-moderate Republicans to stop Trump’s momentum in favor of a more established candidate.
“At first glance, his pretty large lead over everyone else makes me rethink that,” Leonard said. “Particularly since second place goes to Ted Cruz, who doesn’t fit our idea of a moderate Illinois Republican, either.”
Leonard notes there are still a large amount of voters on both sides who are undecided: 15 percent of Republicans and 16 percent of Democrats.
The poll was conducted Feb. 15-20, when Republican Jeb Bush was still a candidate. He received eight percent of the Republican votes. Leonard said anything can happen once more Republican candidates start dropping out.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].
