NEW YORK _ Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 30 percentage points among New York voters, according to a Siena Research Institute poll released Monday.
In her adopted home, Clinton, the state's former U.S. senator, edges out Trump, a native New Yorker, 57 percent to 27 percent in a one-on-one race, according to the poll.
Clinton holds a 25-point lead over Trump, in a four-way presidential race with Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson, according to the telephone poll of 717 registered voters conducted Aug. 7 thru Aug. 10.
"Despite Trump's claims to carry New York, the Empire State seems firmly planted on the blue side of the map," said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. "New Yorkers have voted Democratic in the last seven presidential elections and there does not appear to be a real threat to end that streak."
Trump, who was born in Queens and built his business empire in Manhattan, has long maintained he can make New York competitive in the fall, and bring the state into the Republican column, but poll numbers indicate Trump is struggling to galvanize his own party's base around his candidacy, Greenberg said.
Half of Republicans surveyed _ 52 percent _ said they would vote for Trump in a two-way race with Clinton, compared to the 81 percent of Democrats who said they planned to vote for Clinton.
"While Clinton has 81 percent of Democrats in the head-to-head, and 75 percent in the four-way contest, Trump only garners the support of 55 and 52 percent of Republicans," Greenberg said.
Trump also lags behind Clinton when it comes to questions of job qualifications _ 62 percent of voters said Clinton is qualified to serve as president, compared to 25 percent who said Trump was qualified.
"By far larger margins, voters say Clinton is more qualified to be commander in chief than Trump," Greenberg said.
Both candidates continue to struggle with questions over their trustworthiness _ 60 percent of respondents said they did not believe Clinton was honest or trustworthy, while 69 percent said Trump was not trustworthy.
The poll also found voters view Bill Clinton more favorably than Melania Trump as a possible first spouse _ 60 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the former president, compared to 28 percent for the former model turned businesswoman.
President Barack Obama has a 62 percent favorability rating among state voters; however, voters are split on whether the next president should continue his policies, according to the poll.
Forty-eight percent of voters said the next president should largely change Obama's policies, compared to 45 percent who said the policies should be largely continued by his successor.
"The good news for Hillary Clinton is that President Obama is more well liked now, as he campaigns for her, than at any time since the start of his second term," Greenberg said. "The good news for Donald Trump is that even in blue New York, more New Yorkers, by a small margin, would rather see the next president change than continue the policies of the Obama administration."
