A new poll of Republican primary voters nationwide shows reality TV star Donald Trump maintaining his lead for the presidential nomination with 27 percent support. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley earns 2 percent support, while 6 percent of Democratic voters remain undecided. “That is stunning. A Republican candidate for president urged violence to silence his critics”. Clinton also improved in hypothetical faceoffs with Cruz and Rubio. The brash real estate mogul’s candidacy, once thought to be fleeting by top establishment Republicans but now entering its fifth month atop national polls, has sparked widespread worry about a potential wipeout effect on down-ticket races if he becomes a nominee.
Advertisement
Cruz has accused Rubio of pushing for “amnesty”.
The Washington Post gets its hands on a National Republican Senatorial Committee memo that advises Senate candidates on what to do if Trump wins the Republican nomination, including changing their “look”, avoiding the taint of “special interests”, and avoiding Trump’s rhetoric about women. “Bernie Sanders have to be hoping Trump is the GOP’s guy”, said Malloy.
Meanwhile, in the Democratic contest, Clinton leads Vermont Sen. She runs ahead of Cruz by five points (47/42) after trailing him by three, and now edges Rubio 45/44 after trailing 41/46 last month. An Ipsos analysis of 300 polls showed that there is an eight-point margin of error on average when polls are conducted a year before an election. Sanders is doing equally well – and in some cases better – against the Republicans.
Both of the front-runners have a problem with trustworthiness.
Given these voters’ apparent alienation from the agenda of Republican elites, it’s not a lead-pipe cinch that they’d loyally vote a straight GOP ticket after turning out for the Donald. Clinton is perceived by 60% of American voters as untrustworthy, compared to 36% who say she is trustworthy.
Trump kicked off his campaign with a speech in which he said some Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals, and recently drew criticism for retweeting an image of inaccurate statistics that vastly overrepresented the number of whites killed by blacks, among other errors. When paired against the Donald, Hillary scores 47-44% over Trump and 45% to Marco Rubio’s 44%.
Advertisement
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who along with Cruz has surged recently, found himself in second place in the poll with 17% support. Q-Poll has support for Gov. Kasich at an embarrassing two percent, polling so low that others with similar numbers-Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana-have already dropped out.
