Poll: Clinton trumps Christie in hypothetical 2016 matchup

An new poll found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would best New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie by 10 percentage points in a hypothetical 2016 presidential matchup.

Put head to head in a recent poll question, Clinton got the support of 44 percent of adults, while Christie got 34 percent in the new survey from NBC News. The remainder of respondents either preferred a candidate not listed, said they would not vote, or were undecided.

The poll found Clinton's support would mirror many trends from the 2012 election. Clinton got the support of African-Americans by a margin of 83 percent to four percent, young respondents between ages 18 to 29 by a margin of 45 percent to 31 percent, and Latinos by a margin of 44 percent to 33 percent.

Christie's support mirrored that of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, winning among whites by 41 percent to 37 percent, the South by 43 percent to 35 percent, seniors by 44 percent to 41 percent and wealthier voters making above $75,000 by 46 percent to 34 percent.

Clinton enjoyed strong support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents, 66 percent of whom said they would support her in a presidential primary (just 14 percent said they'd support another Democratic candidate). Christie does not enjoy the same amount of broad unity. Just 32 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents said they would support him in a primary, while 31 percent of adults preferred another Republican candidate. That's reflective of a larger divide between Christie and many of the other potential GOP presidential candidates like Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Christie's support was also heavily concentrated among Northeast Republicans, with 57 percent of that group saying they would support him and 22 percent preferring another candidate. His support dropped to just 35 percent in the Midwest, 29 percent in the South, and 40 percent in the West.

The poll surveyed 1,003 adults from Nov. 7-10 with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points. Among the 428 Democrats or Democratic-leaning respondents the margin of error is +/- 5.5 percent; among the 394 Republicans or Republican-leaning respondents, the margin of error is +/- 5.8 percent.