Jeb Bush narrowly leads the 2016 Republican field of presidential contenders in New Hampshire, a new poll has found — but also has major problems to overcome with general election voters.
A Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm poll of the state, which is the second to vote in the presidential nominating process, found Bush with 16% support — a slight advantage over Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s 13%, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s 12% and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 10%.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and neurosurgeon Ben Carson came in at 6%, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio earned 5% support, and none of the other contenders cracked that mark.
But the poll also found that the leading Democratic choice, Hillary Clinton, has major advantages over Bush in a head-to-head matchup: She’s viewed favorably by 54% of general election voters and unfavorably by just 42%, while Bush is viewed favorably by only 35% and unfavorably by 50%.
The poll was conducted Jan. 31-Feb. 5 by the firm Purple Insights. It included 400 likely Republican primary voters and 400 likely Democratic primary voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.