A new poll of likely Republican voters in South Carolina confirms that Donald Trump hasn’t been hurt by his controversial comments about banning Muslims from entering the United States.
A Winthrop University survey of likely Republican voters shows Trump leading by 8 percentage points over Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump earned 24 percent in Winthrop’s poll, followed by Cruz at 16 percent, Ben Carson at 14 percent, and Marco Rubio at 11 percent. Jeb Bush got 9 percent, and no other candidate got more than 2 percent. But 17 percent of respondents remain unsure of who they will support.
“Trump leads across multiple categories of voters from a high of 35 percent among those who wish to create a database of Muslims in the U.S. to a low of 22 percent among Evangelical Christians, who will make up nearly 60 percent of the S.C. GOP Presidential Primary electorate,” said Scott Huffmon, Winthrop poll director. “Trump’s support is high among those who express anger — as opposed to frustration or contentment — with the government. He rakes in nearly a third of the angry voters, 9 percentage points higher than Ted Cruz, his nearest rival in this category.”
The poll came out just a day after a CNN poll showed that Trump’s latest immigration comments actually seemed to boost his standing in South Carolina. The Winthrop poll surveyed voters through Dec. 7, the same day Trump proposed his ban on Muslims.
According to the poll, Ben Carson earned the best favorability rating, as 75 percent of respondents viewed him favorably and 14 percent of those surveyed viewed him unfavorably. Rubio and Cruz scored the next best favorability ratings, and they were followed by Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, and Trump.
Winthrop surveyed 828 Republican likely voters from Nov. 30 through Dec. 7, 2015, with a 3.4 percentage point margin of error.
