Donald Trump’s comfortable lead in the New Hampshire Republican primary was diminished slightly over the course of the week, though he still leads the race by 19 percentage points, according to a University of Massachusetts Lowell tracking poll released on Friday morning.
Trump earned 34 percent support among likely Republican voters in New Hampshire, down 4 percentage points since the first UMass tracking poll released on Monday.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) maintained his spot in second place with 15 percent support. Rubio jumped to second place in the UMass tracking poll on Thursday. He has risen 7 points since Monday, when he polled at 8 percent in the tracking poll. Sen. Ted Cruz remains in third place in the poll with 14 percent support.
According to TPM’s Polltracker average, Trump leads the New Hampshire Republican primary at 32.1 percent, followed by Rubio with 13.9 percent, and Cruz with 13.1 percent.
The UMass tracking poll, sponsored by Boston news station WHDH, was conducted Feb. 2-4 via phone. They surveyed 500 likely Republican voters with a margin of error plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
If Rubio gets double the votes of the second-place Establishment candidate, he’ll be the nominee. And things seem to be heading that way.
I couldn’t be happier. If there were someone who could fulfill my fantasies of mindless goose-stepping, without Cheney or Rumsfeld in the mix, it is our savior, Don J. Trump.
It’s time for us to rehearse our marching, so we can be in lock-step, our heels clicking in unison. Feel the tRump.
Lincoln said something about wise hens not cackling until their egg is laid.
Claiming frontrunner status is not the same as achieving it.
Trump’s got not-so-frontrunner egg all over his happy-face. And the kind of mob he appeals to doesn’t like second place.
If he’d steamrolled Iowa, he would have an argument to that frontrunner effect, but his 2nd place position is tantamount to complete failure for those all-or-nothing xenophobes.
Without his “inevitable winner” mystique, The Donald’s just a stubby-fingered little carnival barker.
Looking at the poll, Christie and Carson should be off the stage like Carly.
…slightly in a poll that has a margin of error plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.