A new poll shows a five-way tie for first in the crowded field of 2016 Republican presidential nominee hopefuls.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker each garnered 10 percent support among Republican voters in a Quinnipiac poll that was released Thursday.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul follows with 7 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 6 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 4 percent, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina with 2 percent.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who announced his White House bid Wednesday, did not register among voters.
Twenty-one percent of GOP voters said there is “no way” they would vote for Donald Trump, and Bush was second in that category, at 17 percent.
Hillary Clinton continues to dominate among Democratic voters nationwide, but in a heads-up election, Paul and Rubio trail her by just four points each. In addition, a majority of voters, 53 percent, continue to say that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, while voters view Paul and Rubio favorably.
However, six in 10 voters say Clinton has strong leadership qualities, which gives her a double-digit lead over all Republican hopefuls except for Bush. Fifty-one percent overall view him has a strong leader.
The telephone-based poll of of roughly 1,700 registered voters was conducted May 19-26 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. The margin of error for Republican voters is plus or minus 3.8 points and plus or minus 3.6 points for Democrats.
