In head-to-head matchups, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton would defeat Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, but she would lose to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Monday.
If the general election were held today between Clinton and Trump, thanks to strong support from independents and Hispanics, Clinton would garner 50 percent of support, while Trump, who has topped the GOP field since July, would come in with 40 percent.
The survey found that four in 10 voters were put off by Trump's controversial rhetoric, and were twice as likely to say that his language was "insulting" and wrongheaded than they were to say he "tells it like it is" and presents sound solutions, according to The Daily Mail.
Clinton would also beat Cruz by three points, 48 percent to 45 percent, within the poll's 3.36 percentage point margin of error.
But if the presidential election came down to Rubio versus Clinton, Rubio would beat Clinton by three points, 48 percent to 45 percent. Pollsters found that independent voters supported Rubio over Clinton by a seven-point margin, however, Hispanic voters preferred Clinton by 23 points. Rubio did better than the rest of the GOP field in terms of support from female voters, but Clinton still outperformed him by seven points in that demographic, notes The Hill.
As for Carson, despite significantly falling in the polls recently, he would also top the former secretary of state in a hypothetical matchup, 47 percent to 46 percent.
In the national Democratic primary race, Clinton led Sen. Bernie Sanders by 19 percentage points, taking 56 percent support, compared to Sanders' 37 percent and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley's 4 percent.
The poll of 1000 adults was conducted Dec. 6-9 in the wake of Trump's proposal to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
