Donald Trump defied pundits again in a new national poll that shows him gaining even more momentum just weeks before the Iowa caucus.
A new NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll released Tuesday shows Trump winning 38 percent of the vote, up 3 points from the same poll held a week earlier. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, gained 2 points, but with 20 percent was far behind the front-runner.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was a distant third with 11 percent. No other Republican receives double-digit backing: Ben Carson remains in fourth at 9 percent, while New Jersey Gov. Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul each get just 3 percent.
In each of the major age, demographic and income groups, Trump continued to dominate. His strongest support came from men (40 percent), seniors (44 percent), those with a high school education or less (44 percent) and those with an income under $50,000 (41 percent).
Trump also picked up the most support among Republicans who describe themselves as independent: 34 percent support the billionaire businessman, while 22 percent pick Cruz and 11 percent pick Rubio.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holds a 15 point lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: 52 percent to 37 percent. A week earlier, Clinton was a point higher, and Sanders was a point lower.
Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley garners just 2 percent.
However, Sanders leads among certain demographic groups. With voters under 24 years old, 68 percent say they back Sanders, while 26 percent say Clinton.
With men, Clinton has just a small advantage over Sanders, 46 percent to 42 percent. However, with women she has a significant lead, 56 percent to 32 percent. She also has a large lead over Sanders with black voters (63 percent to 20 percent) and Hispanic voters (54 percent to 33 percent).
Democrats also remain slightly more certain than Republicans of their choices for their party’s primary. A majority (51 percent) of Democrats say they are absolutely sure they will vote for their favored candidate, while only 40 percent of Republicans said the same.
This online data of roughly 9,700 U.S. adults aged 18 and over was conducted Jan. 4-6, including 8,655 who said they are registered to vote. The margin of error for the full sample is 1.3 percent, while the group of registered voters carries a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percent.
