Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Donald Trump continues to be the favorite among Republican voters nationwide, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
Trump leads the Republican field with 39 percent, followed by Marco Rubio with 19 percent and Ted Cruz with 18 percent. John Kasich is at 6 percent, while Jeb Bush and Ben Carson are both at 4 percent.
“Reports of Donald Trump’s imminent demise as a candidate are clearly and greatly exaggerated,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “Like a freight train barreling through signals with his horn on full blast, Trumps heads down the track towards a possible nomination.”
Sixty-two percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said they have a favorable opinion of the New York businessman. Rubio, a Florida Republican, is deemed the most likable, with 64 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters saying they had a favorable opinion.
According to the survey, 80 percent of Republicans said Trump has strong leadership qualities. But 60 percent of Republicans said he has the right kind of experience to be president. When asked that same question about Bush, 74 percent of Republicans said he had the right kind of experience to be president.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton lead Bernie Sanders, 44 percent to 42 percent. Eleven percent of Democrats and Democratic leaning voters said they were undecided.
Quinnipiac University conducted the national poll from Feb. 10 through Monday. The survey interviewed 602 Republicans with a margin of error of 4 percent and 563 Democrats with a margin of 4.1 percent.
