Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump retained his strength in a poll from North Carolina among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Public Policy poll released Tuesday.
Trump is leading the pack with 33 percent support, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at 16 percent, and 14 percent each for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Trump had previously led in other Public Policy polls in North Carolina. He had 33 percent support in September and 31 percent support among likely GOP primary voters in October. The poll cited Trump’s islamophobia as reasons why he’s retained support.
Most of Trump’s supporters (67 percent) support Trump’s database for Muslims, 62 percent believe Trump when he said that he saw thousands cheering in New Jersey in 9/11, and 51 percent agree with Trump that mosques should be closed down, according to the poll.
The poll was conducted from Dec. 5 to Dec. 7 and did not gauge support for Trump’s most recent call on Monday to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
The survey was conducted among 537 Republican primary voters who responded by phone and over the Internet. The poll’s margin of error was +/-4.2 percent.
