Former reality-television host Donald Trump has hit 41 percent support in the national race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.
The poll shows Trump’s nearest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), at 19 percent while no other candidate scored any higher than single digits. This represents a slight increase for both Trump and Cruz since the same poll was conducted in late December, when Trump led Cruz 39 percent to 18 percent.
This polling highlights dichotomous trends in recent nationwide Republican polling. On the one hand, Cruz has solidified his position in second place, thanks in part to his slight increase in national polling and a slight decrease in support for the third-place contender, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), to 8 percent in the most recent CNN/ORC poll. On the other, Cruz remains unable to put a serious dent in Trump’s enormous lead in national polls.
The CNN/ORC poll was carried out from January 21-24 by live telephone interviews of 405 likely Republican voters nationwide. The margin of error was 5 percentage points.
