Billionaire Donald Trump is still sitting high atop his perch as the frontrunner in the 2016 Republican presidential primary race, but Sen. Marco Rubio is gaining significant momentum and is right on his heels.
Quinnpiac’s most recent poll has Trump leading with 28 percent support, Ben Carson in second with 16 percent support, and now Marco Rubio has jumped up to third place with 14 percent of Republicans polled liking him.
Trump recently clowned Rubio over his propensity to perspire a lot, sending the Senator from Florida a gift basket of sorts filled with Trump-labeled bottles of water and some towels so Rubio can wipe his sweat.
Even the Public Policy Polling survey has Rubio gaining in the field.
Here is what PPP stated about the poll:
PPP’s newest national Republican poll actually finds the top of the field in a pretty similar place to where it was in late August. Donald Trump leads the field with 27%, similar to the 29% he had on our last survey. Ben Carson is in second place with 17%, also similar to the 15% he had last time around. Marco Rubio at 13%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Ted Cruz at 7%, Carly Fiorina at 6%, and Mike Huckabee and John Kasich each at 4% round out the list of candidates with decent levels of support. Chris Christie, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum are all at 2%, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, and George Pataki each get 1%, and in last place with less than 1% is Jim Gilmore.
Trump continues to lead with every subgroup of the GOP electorate. He’s at 29% with voters most concerned about electability, and 29% with voters most concerned about having a candidate who’s sufficiently conservative. He’s at 35% with Tea Party voters, and 27% with non-Tea Party voters. He’s at 25% with Evangelicals, and 29% with nonEvangelicals. He’s at 29% with moderates, 27% with ‘somewhat conservative’ voters, and 26% with ‘very conservative’ ones. He’s at 31% with men, and 23% with women. And he’s at 32% with young voters and 26% with seniors.
Rubio’s rise in the polls should be of concern for Trump and Carson. Considering that Walker is out of the race and Jeb Bush is struggling to stay afloat, establishment Republicans are eyeing Rubio as their go-to guy if Bush’s campaign falls off the political cliff.
Rubio polls better than Trump against Democrats and could help bolster minority support for Republicans in the upcoming presidential election.
Because Rubio is Hispanic and has the speaking skills to convey his message in two languages, politicos and pundits alike say he would benefit the GOP in their fledgling efforts to embrace the coveted Hispanic voting bloc.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.