
CARA is sharing Pew Research Center political polling numbers at their blog. Respondents weren’t asked to pick a candidate but to say whether they would make a good president (choices were terrible, poor, average, good or great). The results from a January survey:
– Marco Rubio at 65% is the most admired (would make an average, good or great president) candidate, with Cruz second at 60%.
– Hillary Clinton at 57% barely bests Jeb Bush at 56%.
– A majority of Catholics think Socialist Bernie Sanders would make an average or better president.
– Catholics score Rubio (+7) better over the general population. We like Hillary (+4) more, too.
– Catholic admiration for Donald Trump, 43%, and Bernie Sanders, 52%, is the same as everyone else’s.
The poll numbers helpfully break out the extremes, too. If you look at just the extremes – Good/Great on the one hand and Poor/Terrible on the other, you find:
– Way more Catholics see good-to-greatness in Hillary (40% Good/Great) than Cruz (30% Good/Great) or Rubio (29% Good/Great).
– … but then way more Catholics have a dim view of Hillary (41% Poor/Terrible) than they do for Cruz or Rubio 28% (both Poor/Terrible).
– Catholics are very much in the “Not. Trump.” camp. Catholics have low hopes in Trump (53% Poor/Terrible) a 23 point lower assessment than the general population.
CARA’s blogger notes that “As a sheer votes contest today, Hillary Clinton would likely win more votes of Catholics than any other candidate. But Clinton, along with Donald Trump, are “well knowns” and each already has sizeable opposition. As Catholics get to know the other candidates they have room to grow their positives and negatives. Most have more “room to grow” (or fall!) than Clinton or Trump.”
Read the whole thing, with handy charts, here.