Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are gaining on front-runner Donald Trump just days before the New Hampshire primary.
According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Maris poll out Friday and conducted in the days after the Iowa caucuses, the billionaire businessman leads the GOP field with 30 percent of the vote among Republican primary voters, down 1 point from the last poll released mid-January.
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Rubio, who came in a close third in the Iowa caucuses Monday, moved up to second place with 17 percent. In January, the Florida senator was tied in third place with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has now moved down to fourth place with 10 percent.
Cruz, who was in second place in January with 12 percent, moved up 3 points to 15 percent, within the margin of error from Rubio. The Texas senator won the Iowa caucuses by 4 percentage points this week.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 9 percent in the latest poll, and all other candidates have 4 percent or less. Seven percent of likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State remain undecided.
Trump was boosted part in thanks to strong support from men. He has a double-digit lead in that demographic, 34 percent to Cruz’s 16 percent and Rubio’s 15 percent. He leads with women too, but by a smaller margin: 25 percent to Rubio’s 20 percent.
Trump has similar strongholds with likely Republican primary voters without a college degree (35 percent to Cruz’s 19 percent) and with young voters ages 18-29 (40 percent to Rubio’s 25 percent).
And though he has a slight lead with white evangelical Christians in New Hampshire, 24 percent to Cruz’s 20 percent and Rubio’s 19 percent, another 37 percent of those who do not practice religion also back him.
The telephone-based poll of 653 likely Republican primary voters was conducted Feb. 2-3 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
