Washington: Republican and Democratic party front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are poised for victory with double-digit leads over their primary rivals in the upcoming Pennsylvania state primaries, polls showed.
According to the joint poll conducted by NBC News, Wall Street Journal and Marist College on Sunday, among Republicans likely to cast their ballots on Tuesday, Trump has the support of 45 percent, an 18-point advantage over rivals Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who took 27 percent, and Ohio Governor John Kasich at 24 percent.
Trump, Clinton set to win Pennsylvania Seventy-one delegates are at stake in the state’s primary, though just 17 are awarded state-wide on a winner-take-all basis.
The remaining 54 are unbound delegates, Politico reported citing the poll. Trump grabbed the backing of 57 percent of people who said they strongly support a candidate, leading among 52 percent of men and 52 percent of those who do not hold a college degree.
Meanwhile, just 37 percent of college graduates said they supported him, along with 39 percent of women and 40 percent of white evangelicals, though he leads Cruz by four points among that group.
On the Democratic side, Clinton leads rival Bernie Sanders 55 percent to 40 percent, in line with a 16-point advantage over the last two weeks in the rolling Real Clear Politics polling average in the state, which awards its 189 pledged delegates on a proportional basis.
Clinton drew support from 67 percent of likely African-American voters, while just 29 percent said they would vote for the Vermont senator.
The former secretary of state holds significant leads among voters older than 45 (66 percent to 28 percent), women (62 percent to 34 percent), those identifying as Democrats (60 percent to 36 percent) and those who are strongly behind a candidate (59 percent to 41 percent).
However, Sanders leads all potential Republican challengers by wider margins, ahead of Trump by 20 points (57 percent to 37 percent), Cruz by 22 points (58 percent to 36 percent) and Kasich by six points (50 percent to 44 percent).
The poll was conducted from April 18-20, surveying 2,606 registered voters in the stat.
IANS