Donald Trump remains the Republican Party’s front-runner, but he loses to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in a hypothetical matchup featuring the two candidates, according to a new poll from Monmouth University. The new survey also found Trump has increased his support from voters since the first GOP presidential debate last month.
Carson succeeds where all the other candidates failed. The survey pitted Trump against nine GOP presidential candidates and only Carson emerged victorious. Carson leads Trump by 19 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup.
Trump, meanwhile, bests New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul by more than 30 percentage points each. Trump leads Florida Gov. Jeb Bush by 19 points, defeats Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker by 15 points, surpasses Florida Sen. Marco Rubio by 14 points and has a 13 percentage point edge over Carly Fiorina. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s deficit to Walker is seven percentage points.
“The fact that the only one who can challenge Trump is the only other candidate who has never held or run for elected office speaks volumes to the low regard GOP voters have for the establishment,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a statement.
“Conservative activists believe the Republican Party has abandoned its principles. Moderates feel their leadership is ineffective. So Republican voters have created their own job description for the next nominee — Wanted: Someone who can shake up Washington; no elected officials need apply.”
Trump leads the way among Republican voters with 30 percent of those surveyed — gaining four points compared to Monmouth’s August poll — while Carson gained 13 points and moved into second place at 18 percentage points.
Bush dropped four percentage points and has now tied Cruz at eight percentage points. Rubio rounds out the top five with the support of 5 percent of those surveyed.
“None of the establishment candidates are having any success in getting an anti-Trump vote to coalesce around them. In fact, any attempt to take on Trump directly only seems to make him stronger,” Murray said in a statement.
Walker fell from third place in Monmouth’s August poll, and now trails seven other candidates. He dropped eight percentage points total since last month’s poll, and now receives the support of 3 percent of those surveyed. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee performed better than Walker in Monmouth’s national poll.
Walker and Bush’s favorability ratings have gone down, as Trump and Carson’s ratings have increased.
Monmouth University conducted its poll by telephone from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, and surveyed 1,009 adults. The findings of the survey are “based on a sample of 366 registered voters who identify themselves as Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party.” The poll had a 5.1 percentage point margin of error.
