A poll by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling shows that Hillary Clinton has a big lead over rival Bernie Sanders in almost all of the states that will be holding primaries in the first week of March.
{mosads}Her support is strongest in Southern states, with leads of 30 points or more in Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. She also leads Sanders by 28 points in Alabama, 25 in Arkansas, 26 in Tennessee, 23 in Texas and 22 in Virginia.
Clinton’s leads are buoyed by her support among black voters. In every state surveyed, she is ahead of Sanders by at least 40 points among African-Americans.
Sanders is more competitive north of the Mason-Dixon line. He leads by 7 points in Massachusetts, and in Michigan, Clinton is ahead by just 10 points. In his home state of Vermont, Sanders is ahead by a remarkable 76 points. In Oklahoma, Clinton leads by 2 points.
But in every state aside from Vermont, voters say that Clinton is the candidate they trust most to be commander in chief by at least a 31-point margin. When it comes to which candidate is strongest on women’s issues, she also leads by at least 36 points in those states.
Voters in every state where Sanders does not hold a home-field advantage also believe that Clinton would do a better job improving race relations.
Still, the Vermont senator is competitive on economic issues that hold sway with Democratic voters. In five of the 12 states surveyed, Sanders is seen as the best candidate to crack down on Wall Street, and in four states respondents say they trust him to raise the incomes of average Americans.