Mitch Perry
Donald Trump has a narrow, 1-point lead over Ben Carson in the latest Quinnipiac poll of Republican presidential candidates, 24-23 percent. But Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are rising.
Rubio is third in the national survey with 14 percent support, and Cruz is right behind at 13 percent.
Jeb Bush is fifth with 4 percent. No other candidate gets more than 3 percent.
Among Republicans, 25 percent of voters say they “would definitely not support” Trump, with 23 percent who would not back Bush.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton gets 53 percent of Democrats, with 35 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, with 9 percent undecided and 44 percent who might change their mind.
Only 8 percent of Democrats say they would definitely not support Clinton.
And in a one-on-one matchup, Carson beats Clinton, 50-40 percent.
Other Republicans do well against the presumptive Democratic nominee as well. Rubio leads against Clinton, 46-41 percent. Ted Cruz beats Clinton, 46-43 percent. And Chris Christie leads Clinton, 46-41 percent.
Clinton does defeat Donald Trump in a one-on-one matchup, 46-43 percent.
“Is there a doctor in the house? There certainly is and at the moment Dr. Ben Carson is delivering a troubling diagnosis to Secretary Hillary Clinton,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “With the election one year away, Ben Carson has surgically cut away all but one GOP opponent and taken a scalpel to Hillary Clinton’s lead.
“But a year is an eternity in presidential campaigns and this race already has left some former front-runners on life support.”
From Thursday to Monday, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,144 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones. The survey includes 502 Republicans with a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points and 480 Democrats with a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points.
