Hillary Clinton should face a challenge in a ru for president, Democrats say. UPI file photo by Spencer Platt/Pool | License Photo

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Democrats support Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, but they want to give her a fight before giving her the nomination.

A new Monmouth University poll found nearly half of respondents named the former secretary of State when asked to name their top choice for the party's nomination.


But the same number -- 48 percent -- said they also thought it would be better if she faced challengers in the primary, including 53 percent of those who say they support her. Forty-three percent preferred the party coalesce behind a single candidate, Clinton, early in the process.

"When nearly half of Democratic voters volunteer the name Hillary Clinton as their choice for 2016, it's hard to deny that she is the clear front runner," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "At the same, time Democrats do not want to the nomination process to be a coronation."

In the poll, no other candidate even broke double-digits. Popular progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was named by 6 percent of those polled, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Vice President Joe Biden, both with 2 percent.

Thirty-two percent, however, said they were undecided.

Of those polled, 82 percent said they had a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared to just 11 percent who viewed her unfavorably.

Support for Clinton was slightly lower in the Monmouth poll than in most others released in recent weeks. In surveys from McClatchy/Marist, CNN, Quinnipiac, Rasmussen and ABC/Washington Post released since October, support for Clinton ranged from 57 percent to 65 percent.

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