President Donald Trump would lose to every front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary in a theoretical matchup, according to the results of a national CNN poll released Wednesday.
According to the results of the poll, which was conducted by independent research company SSRS on behalf of CNN, six of the leading Democratic contenders outperformed Trump—and most did so outside of the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
"If (NAME) were the Democratic Party's candidate and Donald Trump were the Republican Party's candidate, for whom would you be more likely to vote?" pollsters asked respondents, who had earlier said they were registered to vote. The names of the Democrats were asked in a random order, according to the poll results.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads the Democratic field in most national polls, was one of the candidates who had the widest lead over the president. Fifty-three of respondents said that they would vote for Biden over Trump, while 44 percent said they would vote for the president. The remaining 2 percent of respondents said they had no opinion or would not vote for either.
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman and the former mayor of New York, had a lead over Trump similar to Biden's. Like the ex-vice president, the poll showed Bloomberg with a 9 percentage point lead over Trump—52 percent of voters said they would vote for him, while 43 percent said they would back Trump. In response to this matchup, 2 percent of respondents said they did not have an opinion, another 2 percent said they would not vote for either Bloomberg or Trump, and 1 percent said they would instead vote for another candidate.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who typically comes in second behind Biden in most national polls, had a 7 percentage point lead over Trump. Fifty-two percent of respondents would support Sanders over Trump, while 45 percent said they would vote for the president. One percent of respondents said they had no opinion, and 2 percent said they would not support either candidate.
The poll shows Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts 5 percentage points ahead of Trump. About 50 percent of respondents would vote for her over Trump, while 45 percent said they would vote to re-elect the president. In this matchup, an additional 3 percent said they would vote for neither, and 2 percent said they had no opinion.
Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is ahead of Trump by 4 percentage points—he had 49 percent support from respondents versus Trump's 45 percent. Three percent of respondents said they would not vote for either candidate, while 2 percent had no opinion.
Lastly, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota also had a lead over the president, but it is within the poll's margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. Asked whom they would support if she were to face off against Trump, 48 percent of respondents said they would vote for Klobuchar, while 45 percent said they would support Trump. Three percent said they had no opinion, and another 3 percent said they would instead vote for neither.
The recent CNN poll was conducted among 1,156 respondents, who were contacted by phone between January 16 and January 19. In contrast to many national polls, most respondents for this one were reached on cellphones instead of landlines. According to the results, there were 726 cellphone respondents and 430 on landlines.
Voters in Iowa will be the first in the nation to decide on a Democratic candidate when the state holds its caucuses on February 3.
