Poll: Dems want primary challenge to Hillary

Americans are ready for Hillary … to have a primary challenger.

In a Bloomberg Politics national poll published Friday, 72 percent of Democrats and Independents said it would be good for the Democratic Party if Hillary Clinton faced off in a primary against a “serious” challenger.


The former secretary of state is expected to announce her candidacy for president over social media on Sunday. Right now, she has no clear Democratic challengers.

In March, Clinton faced scrutiny after it was revealed that she had used a private email and server to conduct official business while she served as secretary of state. According to Clinton, after lawyers examined her emails, she sent about 30,000 over to the State Department and deemed another 30,000 “personal” or private and did not save them.

As she closes in on a 2016 announcement, 53 percent of Democrats and Independents said they believe Clinton “purposefully withheld or deleted some” of her emails. Twenty-nine percent believe she was telling the truth by saying she turned over all of her business-related emails and 18 percent were unsure.

Since June 2013, when Bloomberg asked self-described Democrats if they would vote for Clinton, fewer Democrats are saying they would definitely cast their vote for the former First Lady — down from 52 percent to 42 percent.

Early discussions of a Clinton candidacy reveal that her gender and the idea of breaking “the highest and hardest glass ceiling” will be a focus of her campaign message, but when asked, 83 percent of those polled said that electing the first woman president “does not matter much” for their vote. Twelve percent said that having a woman president would make them “more inclined to vote for her” while 4 percent were less inclined. One percent were not sure.

The poll was conducted between April 6-8 among 1,008 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.