Maybe Hillary Clinton isn’t as weak as pundits think, or perhaps Elizabeth Warren isn’t as strong even in her home state of Massachusetts.
Just 22 percent of Massachusetts Democrats said they’d vote for Sen. Warren (D-MA) in a head-to-head match up with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a new poll conducted by Florida-based pollster Gravis Marketing for this writer’s radio show.
Forty-six percent of Democrats in Warren’s home state said they’re more likely to vote for Clinton in the upcoming Democratic presidential primary, while 32 percent are undecided.
The results aren’t that shocking but should nonetheless give confidence to Clinton, who has been relatively silent lately, surfacing only for a couple of tweets and a paid speaking gig in Canada.
Back in 2008, Clinton beat then-Sen. Barack Obama in the Massachusetts primary, 56.2 percent to 40.8 percent, after winning a squeaker in New Hampshire.
Warren, who apparently didn’t benefit much from her multiple cutaways during President Obama’s State of Union address, has repeatedly said she’s not running for president — in the present tense and, more recently, in the future tense, too.
According to the demographics of the poll, Clinton won by 28 points with men, women by 10, and also took the black vote.
“This poll is further proof that Elizabeth Warren is a liberal media dream,” Doug Kaplan, managing partner of Gravis Marketing, told me during my radio show today. “Herbal store elitists and Occupy Wall Street types are her voters. She’s no Barack Obama, and that’s why Hillary will coast to the nomination.”
But the general election is a different story.
Clinton’s success against the eventual Republican nominee will hinge on holding together the coalition of affluent yuppie liberals and urban minorities who twice elected Obama. There’s good reason to believe that that coalition won’t hold.
“The Obama coalition is already fractured, and that’s bad news for Clinton,” said Kaplan.
Gravis Marketing conducted the poll of 358 registered Massachusetts Democrats from Jan. 19-21 and carries a 4 percent margin of error.
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