Poll: Cruz, Rubio in fight for second, Clinton with huge primary lead

ATLANTA — An exclusive Channel 2 Action News poll shows a shift among top Republicans and a huge lead for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton heading into the Super Tuesday primary.

The poll, conducted by Landmark/Rosetta Stone on Sunday, asked likely Republican and Democratic voters which candidate they preferred.

Donald Trump still leads the GOP group with 31 percent, a slight increase over the previous poll on Feb 5. However Marco Rubio has kept pace with Trump’s growth with nearly 23 percent.

Cruz is at 18.7 percent followed by Ben Carson at 8.1 percent and John Kasich at 7.9 percent.

It’s the first time Rubio has polled higher than Cruz in Georgia.

“I believe that most of those people who supported Jeb Bush would come to Marco Rubio because of what he stands for, because of his message,” State Sen. Judson Hill told Channel 2’s Lori Geary.

Hill is the Georgia co-chair of the Rubio campaign.

Louie Hunter is the grassroots chairman for Ted Cruz. He told Geary that attacks from Trump and Rubio are having an impact.

“Ted Cruz is not a liar by any stretch of the imagination,” Hunter said. “What we have are two guys who are vying for the piece of the vote that Senator Cruz has, who are trying real hard to sling anything at him that they can, hoping it sticks.”

Among Democrats, Clinton is being backed by 72 percent of voters while Bernie Sanders received just 20 percent.

About 8 percent remain undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 3.7 percent.

Clinton also leads Sanders in every single demographic break out. She has a large majority in all race and age groups, among men and women, and inside and outside metro Atlanta.

Mark Rountree, president of Landmark Communications, told Geary that poll numbers often break toward Sanders as it gets closer to an election, but it's unlikely it would be enough for him to tip the balance in Georgia.

The Georgia presidential primary is Tuesday March 1.

WSBTV