A new national survey shows that while Donald Trump maintains a huge lead among GOP primary voters, Sen. Ted Cruz is continuing to surge.
According to the latest New York Times/CBS poll, Trump wins 35 percent of the vote, and has a 19-point lead over Cruz. But Cruz jumped into second place with 16 percent, which is roughly four times the level of support he had in October.
Trump and Cruz are followed by Ben Carson at 13 percent, and Marco Rubio at 9 percent. Carson’s support was cut in half since the Times and CBS surveyed the race in October.
The poll also found that many voters fear what the United States might become under a Trump presidency.
“[N]early two-thirds of American voters say they are concerned or frightened about the prospect of a Trump presidency,” wrote the Times on the poll, which will be released later Thursday. “Overall, 24 percent of voters expressed concern and 40 percent fear about what Mr. Trump would do if elected president, whereas 23 percent said they are concerned and 34 percent scared about the possibility of a Clinton presidency. Not surprisingly, voters were sharply divided along partisan lines.”
But it also provides more proof that Trump hasn’t been hurt by his comments about banning Muslims from the United States. The poll was taken from Dec. 4-8, a day after Trump’s controversial comments, and yet Trump remains the clear frontrunner.
The poll surveyed 431 Republican primary voters and 384 Democratic primary voters. The survey has a six-percentage point margin of error for both Republican and Democratic primary voters who responded.
Donald Trump ranks second in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings.
