Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are tied for second place in New Hampshire behind Donald Trump, according to a Suffolk University poll released Thursday.
The Suffolk poll showed support for Trump at 27 percent, considerably ahead of the rest of the Republican field. Kasich and Cruz tied at 12 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) at 11 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at 10 percent. No other candidate polled in double digits.
In the previous Suffolk poll of New Hampshire conducted in November, Trump led with 22 percent support, while Rubio came in second at 11 percent and Cruz and Kasich tied with 9 percent.
Although virtually all recent polling showed Trump with a wide lead over the rest of the pack in New Hampshire, pollsters have been unable to reach a consensus on a second-place candidate. The Suffolk poll comes as Cruz has had a consistent showing in second place, often with a sizable margin over the third-place candidate, in national and Iowa polls. Kasich’s surge in New Hampshire specifically, on the other hand, has been reflected in several other polls of the Granite State.
The Suffolk University telephone poll was carried out from Jan. 25-27. Pollsters surveyed 500 likely Republican voters with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
