Story highlights
Donald Trump holds a 15-point lead over Ted Cruz in Indiana, a new NBC/WSJ/Marist poll shows
Hillary Clinton holds a narrower 50% to 46% lead over Bernie Sanders in the state
Donald Trump has a commanding lead ahead of Indiana’s crucial Tuesday primary, while Hillary Clinton is locked in a tight race with Bernie Sanders there, a new poll shows.
Trump has the support of 49% of likely Indiana Republican primary voters, compared to 34% for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 13% for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who isn’t campaigning in the state, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist University poll released Sunday.
The numbers are bad news for Cruz, who has pinned his hopes on keeping Trump below the 1,237-delegate threshold necessary to clinch the Republican nomination on the first ballot by stopping Trump in the Hoosier State.
On the Democratic side, Clinton holds a narrow 50% to 46% lead over Sanders – which means the Vermont senator is within striking distance in the largely white, Midwestern state.
Head-to-head numbers show that Trump wins matchups against both Clinton and Sanders in Indiana – but Sanders gets closer.
Trump leads Clinton, 48% to 41%, but only leads Sanders 47% to 46%.
Cruz is ahead of Clinton in Indiana, 50% to 43%, but behind Sanders, 48% to 45%.
And Kasich performs the best of all three Republican candidates against Clinton. He leads the former secretary of state, 56% to 37%, and Sanders, 47% to 46%.
The poll surveyed 2,149 registered voters between April 26-28, including 645 likely Republican primary voters for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points and 449 likely Democratic primary voters for a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.