Carly Fiorina got a significant bump from the second Republican presidential debate, but Donald Trump isn’t going quietly.
Morning Consult polled Republicans who watched Wednesday night’s debate. Their survey shows Fiorina surging after her prime-time debut, going from 3 percent to 10 percent. But Trump hangs on to the lead with 36 percent and Ben Carson was in second place with 12 percent.
Marco Rubio, who was also widely viewed as having a strong debate performance, was in fourth place behind Fiorina at 9 percent.
“Those who hoped Fiorina’s strong performance would dent Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican field are going to be disappointed. Trump’s lead remains strong, though the emergence of both Fiorina and Ben Carson shows Republican voters are interested in candidates who don’t represent politics as usual,” James Wyatt, Morning Consult’s director of polling, said in a statement accompanying the results.
But Fiorina has plenty of room to grow, with 19 percent saying the businesswoman was their second choice, compared to 15 percent for Carson, 12 percent for Trump and 10 percent for Jeb Bush.
Morning Consult also asked who won the debate. According to the poll, 29 percent chose Fiorina, 24 percent Trump, and 7 percent Carson. Bush and Rubio followed with 6 percent each.
Only 1 percent of those polled supported Scott Walker, who also had the smallest percentage of voters picking him as the debate winner. This means Walker is tied with Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal, two candidates who appeared in the undercard debate rather than the main event.
Rand Paul had the lowest favorable ratings among Republicans who watched the debate, with 38 percent viewing him favorably and 48 percent seeing him unfavorably. This is a potential downside to adopting his father’s approach of confronting the rest of the Republican field on foreign policy.
