Jon Campbell

jcampbell1@gannett.com

ALBANY - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a 12-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders in New York's Democratic presidential primary race, while businessman Donald Trump is up big on the Republican side, according to a new poll.

Clinton led Sanders 54-42 percent in the Quinnipiac University poll of likely Democratic voters, which was released Thursday.

Trump, meanwhile, has opened a big lead in the Republican primary, according to Quinnipiac. He picked up support from 56 percent of likely Republican voters, compared to 20 percent who preferred Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and 19 percent who backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Both Clinton and Sanders have New York roots: Sanders was born in Brooklyn, while Clinton represented the state in the Senate from 2001 through 2009. Trump also hails from New York.

"The home-court advantage helps both party's front-runners in the presidential primaries in New York," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said in a statement.

New York's primary is scheduled for April 19.

The Democratic poll was much tighter than a Siena College poll earlier this month, which showed Clinton with a 21-point lead over Sanders, a senator from Vermont.

Both Sanders and Clinton ramped up their campaign efforts in New York this week, with Clinton speaking at a rally in Harlem Wednesday and scheduling events Thursday at SUNY Purchase and Friday in Syracuse.

Sanders is set to speak at a rally Thursday in the South Bronx.

On the Republican side, both Cruz and Kasich made appearances in New York City this week.

While Trump remains popular among New York Republicans, he still faces the political realities of a state that has twice as many enrolled Democrats as Republicans.

When matched up head to head, Sanders led Trump 56-32 percent among likely voters. Clinton also led big over Trump, 53-33 percent.

Quinnipiac polled 1,667 New York voters -- including 457 Republicans and 693 Democrats -- from March 22-29. The poll had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points, while questions about the Democratic primary had a 3.7-percentage-point margin. Questions about the Republican primary had a 4.6-percentage-point margin, according to the poll.