A CNN/ORC national poll released Tuesday morning shows that even after his uneven performance at the first GOP debate and subsequent controversy with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump remains the dominant candidate in the Republican presidential race, getting 24 percent of the vote.
Jeb Bush is second with 13 percent. Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is third with 9 percent.
Marco Rubio and Scott Walker are next at 8 percent. Rand Paul is at 6 percent. Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and John Kasich are at 5 percent, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is in tenth place with 4 percent.
Bush has seen his favorability ratings drop since Trump’s entry into the race. He held the top spot in the field in most CNN/ORC polls between last fall and Trump’s entry into the race in June. Overall, 56 percent hold an unfavorable view of the former Florida Governor, and 42 percent of Republican voters have a negative impression. That’s an increase in negative views among all adults (up from 43 percent since July) and among Republican voters (up from 34 percent unfavorable).
As has been the case with Trump in most polls since he surged to the lead in every poll taken over the past month, there are still downsides for the New York City businessman/celebrity. A majority of Republicans – 58 percent – say the party would have a better chance to win in 2016 with any candidate other than the former Celebrity Apprentice star being the nominee – and that’s the case with 72 percent of those who currently aren’t supporting Trump.
However the pollsters say that Trump is impressing on a variety of other questions asked in the survey. The poll shows that 45 percent say that they trust Trump more than any other Republican candidate on the economy — up 25 points since June, 44 percent say they trust Trump over the others on illegal immigration — up 30 points since June — and 32 percent trust him most to handle ISIS, no other candidate comes close on any of these issues.
The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone Aug. 13-16 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults. The sample included 466 registered voters who are Republicans or independents who lean toward the Republican Party. For results among those Republican voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. For results among the full sample, it is 3 points.
