Poll shows Hillary Clinton holds

Bernie Sanders trails by 26 points as primary approaches

commanding lead over Bernie Sanders among Florida Democrats.

Hillary Clinton enjoys a strong lead among Florida Democrats, with a poll released Friday showing her 26 points ahead of Bernie Sanders.

The Quinnipiac University Poll shows Sanders’ support has edged up during the course of the presidential campaign, but the momentum he’s gained from strong showings in early primary contests has failed to help him make inroads into Clinton’s longtime Florida base.

Clinton leads Sanders 59 percent to 33 percent among likely Democratic primary voters.

Among women, Clinton overwhelms Sanders, 69 per- cent to 34 percent. Among men, they’re essentially tied, with 47 percent for Sanders and 43 percent for Clinton, which is within the poll’s margin of error.

And people’s minds seem largely made up. Only 8 percent of Florida Democrats likely to vote in the March 15 presidential primary are undecided; 17 percent said they might change their minds before the primary.

“This has been a turbulent political year, but the Florida Democratic primary looks like a blowout,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said in a written analysis of the results. Given the size of her lead, Brown said, “Clinton would have to undergo a political meltdown of historic proportions to lose this contest.”

Clinton, the former secretary of state and former U.S. senator from New York, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have long enjoyed a reservoir of support in Florida. She’s held a handful of events in the state and in recent weeks started cranking up a campaign organization.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, hasn’t devoted personal attention to the state, though some Democratic activists are mobilizing on his behalf.

Steve Schale, who was Barack Obama’s Florida campaign director in 2008 and senior adviser to his 2012 reelection campaign, wrote on his blog Wednesday — before

the poll numbers came out — that “for Sanders, like in so many other states, demographics are his biggest enemy. Florida is both older and more diverse than most states, two things that bode well for Clinton.”

Quinnipiac found Clinton is ahead of Sanders in virtually every political and demographic way of slicing and dicing Democratic voters. She has doubledigit leads among people who describe themselves as very liberal, somewhat liberal, moder- ate to conservative, college graduates and people without college degrees.

The generational differences that have emerged across the country during the early Democratic nominating contests are reflected in the Florida numbers:

Ages 18 to 44 years old back Sanders, 51 percent to 39 percent.

Ages 45 to 64 years old prefer Clinton, 64 percent to 28 percent.

Age 65 and older support Clinton, 73 percent to 21 percent.

The poll contains hints about some of the other areas that have proven weaknesses for Clinton as the campaign has evolved into a tougher challenge from Sanders than she expected. After months of negative attention to Clinton’s paid speechmaking and email practices during her tenure as secretary of state, Sanders leads — 49 percent to 37 percent — among voters who want a candidate who is honest and trustworthy. He leads, 48 percent to 42 percent, among voters who most want a candidate who cares about their needs and problems.

Almost 4 out of 10 Democratic voters felt the economy and jobs are the most important issues.