Celebrity tycoon and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has solidified his plurality among national Republican voters with 30 percent of support in a Monmouth University Poll released Thursday.
Trump’s support, according to this poll, has increased by 4 points since the first GOP debate hosted by Fox News in early August.
Former neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson was the closest competitor with 18 percent support, a 13-point increase. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw a decrease in support to 8 percent and was tied with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
The poll conducted head-to-head match-ups between the frontunner and nine other GOP presidential candidates. Establishment candidates like Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were unable to beat Trump.
But Carson, a political newcomer, beat Trump 55 percent to 36 percent.
The supremacy of Trump and Carson was in line with a majority of Republican voters (67 percent) who said the next President needs to be someone “who can bring a new approach to Washington.”
“The fact that the only one who can challenge Trump is the only other candidate who has never held or run for elected office speaks volumes to the low regard GOP voters have for the establishment,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said in a press release.
The poll was conducted among 1,009 adults, 366 of whom are registered voters who identify as Republican or lean towards the GOP. The interviews were conducted from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 by telephone. The margin of error was plus or minus 5.1 percent.
Correction: This post has been updated to show that Trump leads the rest of the GOP field by 12 points.
