Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has edged into second place in New Hampshire, though he still lags enormously behind billionaire Donald Trump, according to a University of Massachusetts-Lowell daily tracking poll, Thursday.
The UMass-Lowell tracking poll, which releases daily results collating in-person interviews from the preceding three days, showed support for Rubio at 15 percent. This is part of a consistent upward trend in Rubio’s numbers since tracking began on Monday, when his support stood at 8 percent. This result also shows a surge in support for Rubio since his strong finish in Iowa.
By contrast, the rest of the race has remained stable. Trump still leads in New Hampshire at 36 percent of support and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood right on Rubio’s heels at 14 percent. These results indicate a very slight decrease for Trump, who had registered 38 percent of support between Monday and Wednesday, and stagnation for Cruz, who has stood at 14 percent every day since Tuesday.
The UMass-Lowell tracking poll, sponsored by local news station WHDH, was carried out from February 1-3 by live telephone interviews. Pollsters interviewed 487 likely Republican voters with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.
This post has been updated.
I wonder how much of that, if it’s not just statistical noise, has to do with Rubio being crowned the winner of race in which he came in third.
Reminds me of the ‘I participated’ ribbons given out by schools these days…
I hope you are right. After Kasich
John Kasich…he’s running for president. Anyway, after Kasich, Rubio most concerns me as a GOP opponent. It’s not a particularly high level of concern, but still I’d rather see Sen. PunchMyFace or Blowhard McLoserhair as their nominee.
This is correct: Rubio really is the most dangerous Repub candidate because he is electable. I also dislike the optics of a young, charismatic (well, at least he’s verbally fluent) minority Republican running against an older, established (or even establishment) Democrat. He will pull a lot of media interest, at least some Latino support, and even curiosity among young people. (Still don’t understand how any Millennial votes Republican, but apparently they exist…)
Rubio needs to lose folks. He is in the pocket of the oligarchs and you can bet that a Rubio presidency with a Republican Congress behind him will replicate & amplify the terrible deeds of the Bush presidency: increased deregulation profiting corporations and the wealthy, reduced taxes and/or dismantling social insurance of all types (again profiting the wealthy, of course), increased foreign aggression, etc.
Color me worried…
Well, here’s something that may ease your worries a little… the establishment candidates are about to collectively unload on Rubio. I suspect Jeb!, Christie, and even Kasich will come after him with both barrels blazing because they still believe if they can be the last establishment man standing then they’ll win the nomination. I’m not at all convinced there’s any truth in that, but they certainly believe it and will proceed as such. And in a war of words between Rubio and someone like Christie, Rubio loses. His well-rehearsed retorts work against the utterly predictable Trump. I doubt that’s true of Christie.