Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump maintained his frontrunner status in New Hampshire in a new poll out Wednesday, besting second place Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) by 14 points among GOP primary voters.
Trump’s 29 percent support in the first-in-the-nation primary state has remained stable since Public Policy Polling’s poll in mid-October, but Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich each saw their stock rise since the December poll.
Rubio polled at 15 percent support, up from 11 percent, followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kasich at 11 points each, with Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) each with 10 percent support.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, once vying with Trump to lead the GOP field, fell to the bottom tier, with just 4 percent support in the new poll. Carson’s campaign was hard hit with two high profile departures on Dec. 31.
Bush, who for months has been by plagued by dismal poll numbers, has taken to handing out toy turtles to kids at campaign stops, telling them “slow and steady wins the race.”
PPP’s poll of 515 likely Republican primary voters was conducted Jan. 4-6 online and over the phone, with a 4.3 percent margin of error. New Hampshire’s primary is scheduled for Feb. 9.
