Recent polls have shown that Hillary Clinton, were she to run, would trounce Democratic contenders and most Republicans.
The Washington Post reported in January that Clinton has a 6 to 1 lead over other potential candidates for 2016, and the Republican contest is deeply divided, with no clear leading candidate. 73 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents said when asked that they would support Hillary if she ran for her party’s nomination. Trailing behind her at distant second is current Vice-President Joe Biden, who polled at 12 percent, and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who has only 8 percent.
Clinton’s supporters can be found in most groups in the Democratic Party, appealing to different genders, ethnicities and classes. She has the biggest lead in polling in over 30 years.
More recently (March 7th) Clinton’s lead has shrunk to 47 percent, which still gives her an advantage over the former governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, a possible Republican nominee and member of the Bush family, who polled at 33 percent.
In contrast to Clinton’s huge lead is the Republican Party’s divided playing field. No candidate of the six who are most likely to run in 2016 had more than 20 percent when polls were taken in January. The former front runner, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, has been damaged by allegations of political corruption and intimidating behavior towards members of the Democratic Party.
No candidate has the total support of the conservative Tea Party segment of the Republican Party. In late February, Jeb Bush was the frontrunner, with 41 percent supporting him and 21 percent opposing him. Other potential candidates include Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (39 percent), Marco Rubio, a Senator from Florida, and Ted Cruz, a Senator from Texas, who is probably the most conservative candidate and the one most likely to have the Tea Party’s support.
All in all, the potential candidates for both party’s nomination are an interesting lot. While Clinton currently has the Democratic lead, as the country gets closer to election season it is possible that this will change. The Republican nomination is more up in the air at the moment, and it will likely be one of the more interesting races in recent elections. The candidates represent all factions of the Republican Party, from traditional Bush-and-Reagan Conservatism, to Tea Party Conservatism, to Paul’s Libertarian-leaning positions, heavily influenced by his father Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman and former presidential candidate in 1988(as a Libertarian), 2008, and 2012.
