Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) trails former reality-television host Donald Trump by only three percentage points among Republican voters nationwide, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) languishes far behind, according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday.
The poll showed support for Trump at 41 percent, followed by Cruz at 38 percent and Kasich at 17 percent.
The previous Fox News poll was conducted in mid-February and showed Trump at 36 percent. Cruz and Kasich, by contrast, have both bounded forward dramatically, from 19 percent and 8 percent respectively, as several other candidates have dropped out of the race.
This result differs from other nationwide polls released in the last few days, which show Trump continuing to lead by a substantial margin, although none project as wide a lead as he enjoyed earlier in the year.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Trump at 45.5 percent, Cruz at 23.5 percent and Kasich at 14.6 percent.
The Fox News poll was carried out from March 20-22 using live telephone interviews. Pollsters surveyed 388 people likely to vote in the Republican primary, with a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
