Despite losing his front-runner status in Iowa, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump now has the support of slightly more than four in 10 GOP voters nationally, according to a new poll.
The New York billionaire receives 41 percent support in Monmouth University’s latest national poll of Republican voters, putting him 27 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who’s in second place at 14 percent.
Rounding out the top tier is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (10 percent) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (9 percent), whose national poll numbers have plummeted in recent weeks. None of the remaining GOP candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, earn more than 3 percent support.
Trump’s latest poll numbers defy continued speculation that he has “peaked” in the GOP field. Since Monmouth University last surveyed Republican voters in mid-October, the outspoken businessman has expanded his lead by 13 percentage points, from 28 percent.
Trump’s favorability rating has also seen a nine-point increase in the last two months, reaching an all-time high in Monmouth’s poll. He currently enjoys a net-positive rating of 61-29 percent, while Cruz and Rubio are viewed favorably by 55 percent and 58 percent of GOP voters, respectively.
Still, a majority of Republican voters (55 percent) claim Trump does not have the temperament to be commander in chief, and a combined 53 percent of GOP respondents said they would be “dissatisfied” or “upset” if Trump succeeds in becoming their party’s nominee.
Interestingly, though he’s been criticized by his Republican rivals for espousing moderate-to-liberal views as recently as a couple years back, Trump performs roughly the same in support among very conservative (41 percent), somewhat conservative (45 percent) and moderate (40 percent) voters. And 52 percent of self-identified Tea Party supporters back the real estate mogul.
“Trump voters may skew toward a lower educational level, but it’s important to keep in mind that he draws support from significant segments of every voting bloc. You simply can’t pigeonhole his supporters as representing one or two particular factions of the party,” Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, noted in a statement.
The survey of 1,006 American adults, including 385 Republican or Republican-leaning voters, was conducted between Dec. 10-13 and contains a margin of error of 5 percent.
Trump will join eight of his GOP rivals Tuesday evening in Las Vegas for the final Republican primary debate of 2015. The debate will air live at 8:30 p.m. ET on CNN.
