Despite a heavily criticized debate performance Saturday night, Donald Trump continues to lead the South Carolina primary by a comfortable margin, according to a poll released Monday night.
The survey of likely Republican primary voters from Public Policy Polling finds Trump with 35 percent of the vote and his closest challengers, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, with 18 percent each. The 17-point advantage is in line with 10 polls of the state taken this year.
In addition to noting that the S.C. primary debate doesn’t seem to have affected Trump’s poll standing, PPP’s president Dean Debnam noted that the GOP frontrunner maintains “a pretty consistent across the board lead” with the different segments of the Republican electorate. That includes both Evangelical voters — a key base of Cruz’s support in his Iowa caucus win — and non-Evangelicals, who support Trump more than any other candidate with 35 percent and 34 percent, respectively. Cruz has just 22 percent of the Evangelical vote, according to the survey.
Another notable number from the PPP poll is the relative favorability ratings of Cruz and Trump. The latter has befuddled election experts with his strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire despite the high levels of negativity he has attracted from voters. However, this particular survey finds Trump in better standing with S.C. voters than Cruz. Trump’s favorable-unfavorable rating is 50/43. Cruz’s, on the other hand, is underwater at 42/48.
On the Democratic side, PPP finds Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders in South Carolina 55 to 34 percent.
Check out the full poll results here.
