If anyone doesn’t think that Republican front-runner is blessed, consider this new polling result from McLaughlin & Associates.
Trump, a Presbyterian up against four Catholic candidates — Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Chris Christie and Rick Santorum — is the top choice of Catholics.
“The 20 percent of Republican primary voters who are Catholic are among Protestant Donald Trump’s best voter groups, as Trump leads with 41 percent,” said the poll. As with most polls, Sen. Ted Cruz is second, at 17 percent.
“The Catholic ethnic vote has been preempted by Presbyterian Trump,” found the poll released Thursday.
And despite Cruz’s outreach to Evangelicals, Trump is crushing that category too. “Almost half the primary is not just Protestants, but Evangelical Christians. Among Evangelicals is where Ted Cruz, the son of a Christian preacher, is closing the race: Trump 32 percent, Cruz 24 percent,” said the survey write-up.
The poll agreed with others, putting Trump in the overall lead, but they also found some unusual groups of Trump support that suggest he is heading to the nomination in good form.
One example: Facebook users, of which some 80 percent of Americans claim to be. Here Trump is the big winner too. From the poll analysis:
Trump has shown his skill among all voters who use social media. Among the 80 percent who use Facebook, Trump leads with 36 percent, Cruz 14 percent, Rubio 11 percent, and Carson 11 percent.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
