Donald Trump is leading Ted Cruz by a whopping 34 percentage points — 54%-20% — among likely Republican voters in California, a SurveyUSA poll for KUSA found.
That’s a significant gain for the Republican frontrunner, whose lead was only 8 percentage points in the last SurveyUSA poll a month ago. And it’s a significant loss for Cruz. The two were 40%-32% last month.
California, which holds its primary June 7, is the most delegate-rich state on the Republican primary calendar with 172 at stake for GOP hopefuls.
That makes Indiana, which will award 57 delegates after its primary Tuesday, all that much more important for Cruz if he wants to stop Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. In the most recent poll, though, he is trailing by 15 percentage points in the Hoosier State.
On the Democratic side, the SurveyUSA poll gives Hillary Clinton a 57%-38% lead over Bernie Sanders in California. In general election match-ups, she beats Trump 56%-34% and Cruz 57%-29%. California has not sided with a Republican for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988.
SurveyUSA polled 2,011 registered voters in California from April 27 to April 30.
