Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been able to stick around in the Democratic primary through strong support from white men — and it’s this demographic which is also helping him steadily lead Donald Trump in general election match-up polls.
While Hillary Clinton is the Democratic frontrunner, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average she is not the ideal candidate for the general election. In the average of recent polls Clinton leads Trump by 1.5 percentage points, and Sanders leads Trump by 10.4 percent.
Polling of a Trump-Clinton matchup have shown a consistent gap among male and female voters, and white and non-white voters. In a recent CBS/NY Times poll, Clinton trails Trump 41 percent to 46 percent among men and 38 percent to 50 percent among white voters. However, in a Sanders-Trump matchup, Sanders leads among men 46 percent to 45 percent and closes the gap with white voters trailing 43 percent to 46 percent. (RELATED: Race Will Probably Play A Decisive Role In The General Election)
This isn’t an isolated phenomenon. In the last five national polls with racial and gender breakdowns that include the three candidates, Clinton trails Trump among white voters by an average of 36.4 percent to 51.8 percent. In these same five polls, Trump leads Sanders with white voters by 48.6 percent to 41.6 percent, a gap 8.4 percent smaller than Clinton’s.
In the same average, Trump leads Clinton among male voters 49.2 percent to 39.8 percent. His lead over Sanders is significantly smaller in this category, 46.6 percent to 44.6 percent.
In the 2012 election, 72 percent of voters were white and 47 percent were men.