Peter Schorsch
Donald Trump is once again alone at the top of the Republican field, according to the latest CNN/ORC Poll, with 36 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents behind him, while his nearest competitor trails by 20 points.
Three candidates cluster behind Trump in the mid-teens, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 16 percent, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 14 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 12 percent. All other candidates have the support of less than 5 percent of GOP voters in the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for president.
Carson (down 8 points since October), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (down 5 points to 3 percent) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (down 4 points to 1 percent) have lost the most ground since the last CNN/ORC poll, conducted in mid-October.
Cruz (up 12 points) and Trump (up 9 points) are the greatest beneficiaries of those declines. Rubio is also up slightly, gaining 4 points — an increase within the poll’s margin of sampling error — since the last CNN/ORC poll.
