Five Republican presidential hopefuls are in a dead heat in a crowded 2016 Republican presidential race that remains wide open, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. Meanwhile, two of the GOP gang are actually making up ground on the presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Florida Se. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have made strong gains are the only two members of the GOP who are close to Clinton in the latest poll. Paul and Rubio represent the greatest challenge to Clinton, trailing her 4 points each, while the former secretary of State has 9 points on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has not announced a bid.
A majority of voters, 53 percent, continue to say Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, a metric in which Paul and Rubio are both viewed favorably.
However, six in 10 voters say Clinton has strong leadership qualities, giving her a double-digit lead over GOP hopefuls except for Bush, who is viewed as a strong leader by 51 percent overall.
Back to the GOP race where Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker each take 10 percent support among Republicans in the poll.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul follows with 7 percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz takes 6 percent and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina has 2 percent.
No GOP hopeful in the poll captures more than 10 percent of the vote. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who announced his White House bid on Wednesday, did not register among overall voters.
On the Democratic side Clinton captures 57 percent support among her party’s voters. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) takes 15 percent and Vice President Biden, former senator from Delaware, has 9 percent.
The survey of 1,711 registered voters was conducted May 19-26 via landlines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 2.5 points. The margin of error for Republican voters is 4 points, and 3.5 points for Democrats.
