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Report: 1st New Poll Out Of South Carolina Shows A Clear Leader- This Will Get Interesting…
A new internal poll from the South Carolina Republican presidential primary shows a tightening race, with Donald Trump still maintaining a strong lead, but Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio gaining ground.
The poll results were published Thursday by the Weekly Standard in a brief story by editor-in-chief Bill Kristol.
Kristol reported the results came to him from a political operative whom he trusts and not affiliated with any of the campaigns.
The results: Trump 32 percent, Cruz 26, Rubio 20, Gov. Jeb Bush 10, Ben Carson 7, and Gov. John Kasich 2.
The article does not indicate how recently the poll was conducted, but presumably it was done sometime in the past week.
“Take it with the usual grains of salt, but I do trust these were the actual results of an honest and competent pollster doing his best to get an accurate read on the situation,” Kristol wrote.
Perhaps, it is also worth noting that Kristol is not fan of Trump.
Crowd-sourcing: Name of the new party we’ll have to start if Trump wins the GOP nomination? Suggestions welcome at [email protected]
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) December 20, 2015
There have been no public polls conducted in South Carolina for over three weeks, meaning none have taken place since the results in Iowa and New Hampshire, and the exit of some candidates from the field.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls from the period of Jan. 15-23 had the race: Trump 36 percent, Cruz 19.7, Rubio 12.7, Bush 10, Carson 8.7, Gov. Chris Christie 2.3, Mike Huckabee 2, Kasich 2, Rand Paul 2, Carly Fiorina 1.7, and Rick Santorum 0.3.
Since that time, Christie, Huckabee, Paul, Fiorina and Santorum have left the field, so their approximately 8 percent of support in the Palmetto state will go to the other candidates, which gives some credence to the Weekly Standard’s published numbers.
If the poll is more-or-less accurate, Trump has lost a small percentage of support, while Cruz and Rubio have picked up approximately 7 points each.
As in Iowa, evangelicals will likely make up approximately two-thirds of Republican primary voters, which one would think would bode well for Cruz. However, Trump won the evangelical vote in New Hampshire, with 27 percent to Cruz’s 23 percent and Rubio’s 13 percent.
Rubio will hope to bounce back in South Carolina after a disappointing 5th place finish in New Hampshire, which came on the heels of a stronger-than-expected, third-place finish in Iowa.
Delegates in the Palmetto state are apportioned proportionally, based on the percentage of the vote each candidate receives. The total delegates standing overall is Trump 17, Cruz 10, Rubio 7, Kasich 4, and Bush 3.
h/t: Bloomerg
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/report-1st-new-poll-out-of-south-carolina-shows-a-clear-leader-this-will-get-interesting/
