Dianne Feinstein leads California state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León by nearly 30 percentage points. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Poll: Feinstein holds massive lead in primary

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is breezing toward re-election, according to a new poll, with a massive lead over the fellow Democrat challenging her from the left.

Feinstein leads state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León by nearly 30 percentage points — 46 percent to 17 percent — among likely California voters, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.


Though a third of likely voters remain undecided, the poll reflects the long odds facing de León as he seeks to unseat California’s senior senator. Feinstein, a centrist Democrat, is polling ahead of de León by wide margins among Democrats, independent voters, men, women and people of all racial and ethnic groups.

Feinstein, at 84, is seeking a fifth full term in the Senate, while de León remains largely unknown. Nearly two-thirds of likely voters have either never heard of him or don’t know enough about him to form an opinion, according to the poll.

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The race — along with California’s gubernatorial contest — will top the ballot in a heavily Democratic state where voters rate immigration as the most important issue for the governor and lawmakers to work on this year. Just more than a quarter of likely voters expect the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in California, to be able to work together and accomplish much this year.

No prominent Republican is yet running in the Senate contest, setting up the possibility of a rematch between Feinstein and de León in November. Under California’s top-two primary rules, the top-two vote getters in June advance to the November general election regardless of party affiliation.

The poll, using live telephone interviews, was conducted Jan. 21-30, surveying 1,705 California adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

