Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson are tied in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in a new poll released Tuesday, a year out from when voters are set to cast ballots in the 2016 general election.
While Clinton is tied with Carson at 47 percent, the former secretary of state leads three other major Republican candidates, according to the NBC/News Wall Street Journal poll.
In recent weeks, Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has shot to the top of the crowded GOP presidential field and is appealing to an electorate seeking a political outsider.
When Clinton, the clear Democratic front-runner, is pitted against Florida Sen. Marco Rubio she leads him 47 percent to 44 percent. Moreover, when head-to-head with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and billionaire businessman Donald Trump, she leads 47 percent to 43 percent and 50 percent to 42 percent, respectively.
But Clinton has a clear weakness in the poll and it’s with independent voters, who are throwing most of their support behind each of the GOP candidates. Many swing states, such as Colorado, have large blocs of independent voters that can tilt elections.
Among independent voters, Carson leads Clinton by 13 percentage points, while Rubio outpaces her by 7 percentage points.
The poll was conducted Oct. 25-29 and surveyed 847 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
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