Story highlights
NBC News/Marist released a poll Tuesday, showing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lead their primary races
The primary date for the reliably blue general election state is April 26
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hold commanding leads in Maryland, a new poll shows with two weeks to go before the state’s presidential primary.
According to the NBC/Marist poll, released late Tuesday, the real estate mogul leads the Republican field by double-digits with 41% support. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails at 29%, edging out Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 24%.
Clinton, meanwhile, holds a 22 percentage point advantage in the state, leading Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 58% to 36%.
The NBC/Marist poll also found that both Clinton and Sanders would handily defeat any Republican opponent in reliably blue Maryland.
In hypothetical general election match-ups, Clinton would beat Trump by 63% to 27%, Cruz 60% to 31%, and Kasich 55% to 38%.
Sanders would also beat Trump, 65% to 26%, Cruz, 63% to 28%, and Kasich, 55% to 36%.
With tight races in both nominating contests and a dwindling number of contests left to collect delegates, the Maryland primary April 26 is a critical opportunity for challengers to make up ground on the front-runners. Ninety-five delegates are available in the Democratic race, while 38 are at stake on the Republican side.
The NBC/Marist poll was conducted from April 5 through April 9, and surveyed 775 likely Democratic primary voters and 368 likely Republican primary voters. The margin of error for the Democrats is +/- 3.5%, and +/- 5.1% for the Republicans.