New Rasmussen national poll has Donald Trump still up, but down 9% from debate

“Has ‘The Donald’ Peaked?”

That’s the headline of a new national public opinion survey of Republican voters from Rasmussen Reports that was released Tuesday afternoon.  The survey shows New York City real estate magnate Donald Trump continues to lead the crowded GOP field of presidential candidates with 17 percent support. That’s a nine-percentage point drop from a similar poll taken approximately two weeks ago and before last week’s debate, which had Trump up with 26 percent support nationally.

The new survey has Floridians Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush tied for second with 10 percent support each, in a near tie with the candidate who has gotten the most milage out of the two debates last week, Carly Florina. She has shot up to 9 percent support to tie for forth place with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Next with 8 percent support is retired neurologist Dr. Ben Carson at 8 percent, followed by Ted Cruz at 7 percent.

In previous Rasmussen polls, Florina had  been hovering in Lindsey Graham-George Pataki country at around 1 percent, meaning she has jumped 8 points since her performance in the late afternoon debate held last Thursday in Cleveland, which was held hours before the prime-time event.

Another winner coming out of the debates is Rubio, who has doubled his support in this poll in the past two weeks, going from 5 to 10 percent.

There is little change with the other candidates. Their numbers are as such: Mike Huckabee, 5 percent; Chris Christie, John Kasich and Rand Paul, all at four percent. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, Senator Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum are all at one percent. Sad to say, former New York Governor George Pataki earned 0 percent support statistically in this survey.

The national telephone survey of 651 Likely Republican Primary Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on August 9-10, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.