Former reality-television host Donald Trump has more than twice the support of his closest contender in the Republican race in South Carolina, according to a Bloomberg poll released Wednesday.
The poll showed support for Trump at 36 percent, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at 17 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at 15 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) at 13 percent. Although this is the first Bloomberg poll of the South Carolina GOP primary, these results are consistent with nearly all other recent polling, which has shown Trump ahead by a wide margin while Cruz and Rubio come within a few points of one another in their competition for second place.
TPM’s PollTracker Average shows Trump leading at 42.1 percent, Cruz at 19.5 percent and Rubio at 15.2 percent.
The Bloomberg poll was conducted from Feb. 13-16. Pollsters surveyed 502 likely Republican voters by live telephone interview, with a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
