Mike Huckabee Leads GOP for 2016 in Iowa, Hillary for Dems

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 8, 2012   |   6:23PM   |   Washington, DC

Proving it’s never too early to start thinking about the next election, a new poll surveying Iowa Democrats finds pro-abortion Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading the pack of potential Democrats who may want to follow President Barack Obama. Republicans are mostly divided among several candidates.

In a poll that is really more of a measure of name identification than tangible support for a candidate at this ridiculously early juncture of the next campaign, Clinton places first followed by pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden. At Biden’s age and given his past failed attempts to secure the Democratic nomination, it seems highly unlikely he would consider another bid for the nomination. Still, Iowa Democrats know him and he ranked second.

As Politico reports:

The PPP poll, which was shared exclusively with POLITICO, shows Clinton taking 58 percent of the Iowa vote in a hypothetical presidential run. Vice President Joe Biden trails far behind at 17 percent, followed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 6 percent and Massachusetts Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren at 3 percent.

None of the other Democrats tested – Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner – cracked 1 percent in the poll.

If Clinton doesn’t run, Biden would jump into the lead with a less-commanding 40 percent of the vote, with Cuomo rising to 14 percent and Warren up to 9 percent. In the event that neither Clinton nor Biden runs, Cuomo draws 30 percent to Warren’s 13 percent, with 46 percent of voters unsure who they’d support.

As one would expect, Clinton and Biden are by far the best-known and best-liked of the Democrats’ potential 2016 field. Both are universally known and have approximately equal favorability ratings: Clinton gets a positive response from 86 percent of Democrats and a negative response from 11 percent. For Biden, those numbers are 85 percent positive, 15 percent negative.

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All of the potential candidates, like Obama, are strongly pro-abortion and would draw strenuous opposition from the pro-life community should they become the nominee.

On the Republican side former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as the nominal leader of the pack, taking 15 percent of the vote in a nine-candidate field.

But that was only 3 points better than Ryan, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, each of whom took 12 percent. Bush had 11 percent, followed by Rick Santorum at 10 percent and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at 9 percent.

Bringing up the rear were Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 5 percent and Sarah Palin at 4 percent.

All of the potential Republican candidates surveyed are pro-life with the exception of Rice.