Donald Trump has opened a 20-point lead on the Republican presidential field, according to a new CNN/ORC survey.
The poll shows Trump received the support of 36 percent of registered voters, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came in second with 16 percent. Ben Carson is third with 14 percent, and no other candidate scored more than 4 percent.
Carson has dropped 8 percentage points since October’s CNN/ORC survey, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush lost 5 percentage points. Friday’s poll shows Bush receiving support from three percent of respondents.
“[T]he new poll finds [Trump] the businessman with both his broadest support and his widest lead in any national live-interviewer telephone poll since he announced his candidacy in June,” wrote CNN. “The poll reflects Trump’s dominance over the rest of the field on the issues voters deem most important to them.”
“He holds massive margins over other Republicans as the candidate most trusted to handle the economy (at 55 percent, Trump stands 46 percentage points over his nearest competitor), the federal budget (51 percent, up 41 points), illegal immigration (48 percent, up 34 points), ISIS (46 percent, up 31 points) and foreign policy (30 percent, up 13 points).”
The CNN/ORC poll surveyed 1,020 total Americans by phone from Nov. 27—Dec. 2 and had a three percentage point margin of error. The GOP sample within the poll included 445 “registered Republicans,” including 278 registered voters who identify as Republican and 167 voters who identified as independents that lean Republican. Polling of the GOP sample had a 4.5 percentage point margin of error.
