Republican Donald Trump has widened his lead over a crowded field of Republicans in Georgia's Tuesday primary while Democrat Hillary Clinton maintains a whopping lead over her Democratic rival, according to a Landmark Communications/Rosetta Stone polls released by Channel 2 Action News on the eve of the election.
The survey of 1,400 likely Republican voters shows the billionaire is backed by 39 percent of voters in Georgia, up 7 points since the firm's last poll was released a week ago. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 20 percent of the vote, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is at 15 percent, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are hovering in single digits.
About 9 percent of respondents were undecided and the margin of error is 2.6 percent.
On the Democratic side, the survey of 800 likely Democratic voters shows Clinton is backed by 70 percent of voters while Sanders garnered just 23 percent. About 7 percent were undecided and the margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
Those numbers have barely budged since last week, when the news station's poll showed Clinton with a 52-point lead over her adversary. They are the first in Georgia to be released after Clinton's rout of Sanders in South Carolina, where she captured roughly 75 percent of the vote.
The poll Monday showed Clinton with dominating leads over Sanders among black voters, the middle-aged and the elderly. She also has a solid 54-39 lead among white voters, long a weak spot in her campaign. The only category where the race is tight is among voters aged 18-39. The poll shows a statistical tie among those voters, with Clinton at 48 percent and Sanders at 47 percent.
Trump led the crowded field in every demographic, including winning the lion's share of younger voters and men. He also led the field among African-American voters, though the race was tighter.
The numbers were most discouraging for Cruz, who has long boasted that the religious conservatives in Georgia and other Deep South states are his “firewall." Candidates can only get delegates if they reach 20 percent of the vote or if they finish first or second in one of Georgia’s 14 congressional districts, and the poll has him clearly under that 20-percent threshold.
Here's the take from John Garst of Rosetta Stone:
"Folks - take a look at Real Clear Politics from around the country. This race is over," he posted on Facebook. "Donald Trump will hit the required number of delegates within the next two weeks and the race will be locked up. I'm not advocating for any candidate here, but it is time to wake up and smell the coffee."
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