A Fox News poll shows Donald Trump with 35 percent support in the South Carolina primary, putting him far ahead of his GOP rivals.
Dr. Ben Carson got 15 percent of the vote, while Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz each got 14 percent of the vote. Former Gov. Jeb Bush got just 5 percent of the vote, according to the poll of 437 likely GOP voters.
According to Fox, Trump likely gained a big bump during the four-day poll because of his hard-line response to the jihad attack in San Bernardino.
“The poll, released Wednesday, was conducted Saturday through Tuesday evenings. Trump made provocative remarks Monday about barring Muslims from entering the United States.
It looks like his comments help him in South Carolina. Support for Trump increased eight points after his statement — from 30 percent the first two nights vs. 38 percent the last two nights.
The poll also tried to estimate each candidate’s possible future gains by asking voters for their second-choice candidates. Trump gained 13 points, Cruz gained 17 points and Carson gained 16 points. Rubio gained 12 points.
But Trump is also facing a lot of strong opposition from within the party, Fox reported. Twenty-four percent of GOP likely voters say they would not back him, while 19 percent of GOP voters said they would not back Bush.
The poll also asked 364 likely Democratic voters in the state about their favorites in the Democratic race.
In the race for the Democratic nomination, there’s really no competition for the former secretary of state in the Palmetto State. [Hillary] Clinton trounces [Sen.] Bernie Sanders by a margin of 65-21 percent, while [former Gov.] Martin O’Malley garners just 3 percent among South Carolina Democratic primary voters.
However, these results are expected to change. The Fox polls were small-scale, and there are still 10 weeks of campaigning before the Feb. 20 primary.