Poll: Trump, Clinton have big leads in Pennsylvania

(Lancaster) — The presidential race in Pennsylvania is looking a lot less competitive after the latest Franklin and Marshall College Poll.

The voter survey devoted attention to likely voters in the commonwealth and found the front runners in both parties have pulled even farther ahead.

Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 58 to 31 percent.

F&M Poll Director Dr. Terry Madonna says Clinton does well with key demographic groups in the state — African American and older voters.

While Sanders is drawing huge crowds of millennials to his rallies, they make up a smaller portion of the vote.

“It could be 11, 12, 13 percent,” he says. “But when you have voters over 50 comprising 60 percent of the electorate, you can see the size of these individual demographics groups makes a huge difference.”

Madonna says Pennsylvania’s demographics also favor Republican Donald Trump.

“He’s competed much more favorably in Philadelphia, in the Philadelphia suburbs and up in the Lehigh Valley among Republicans who are conservative, moderate voters, not hard-line conservative,” he says. “He typically does well with blue-collar, working class voters.”

Likely voters give him 40 percent of the vote, while Ted Cruz has 26 percent and John Kasich has 24.