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.
When people like Kasich and Christie drop, another guy like Rubio or even Jeb will pass Trump. They each have 11 percent, so right away Rubio would be way ahead of Trump just from those two.
Trump has a VERY loyal 29%. But that is not likely to win the nomination. Nate Silver has been pretty much on board with that thinking too.
Pity, he stands no chance in the general, so I indeed hope he wins the nomination. But it’s not likely to happen.
Rafael is on track to win Iowa because evangelists if I’m not mistaken so Trumpet will continue to be enraged
I’m watching New Hampshire very closely. An establishment candidate needs to overtake Trump in this state to have a chance at thwarting Trump’s march to the nomination, in my opinion. Also, whoever that candidate is will become “the” establishment candidate. Chris Christie is looking like a dark horse here. (This poll is mostly in line with the RCP average, with Rubio expanding his position a little bit.) Very interesting stuff.
Trump has climbed as high as 40% though in some polls, and that is not a ceiling because some of the other 60% would/could support trump if their preferred candidate dropped out. Trump just needs to hold that 40% peak, and snatch 1/6 other voters.
“Jeb Bush has taken to handing out toy turtles to kids at campaign stops…”