Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
With just one day before the South Carolina primary, Donald Trump’s lead in the Palmetto State is narrowing.
Trump still leads the pack, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters; however, Ted Cruz is now within 5 points of the New York businessman. Trump gets 28 support from likely GOP primary voters, followed by Cruz at 23 percent.
Marco Rubio is at 15 percent, while Jeb Bush is at 13 percent. Rubio and Bush are in a statistical tie for third, according to the NBC/WSJ/Marist poll. John Kasich and Ben Carson are both polling at 9 percent.
The new South Carolina poll might be an outlier, though. All other recent polls have Trump leading by a wide margin.
An Emerson College Polling Society poll released this week found Trump was leading the field with 36 percent support. In that poll, Trump led his nearest competitor (Rubio at 19 percent) by 17 points. A Fox News poll released Thursday found Trump was at 32 percent and led his nearest competitor (Cruz at 19 percent) by 13 percent.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 60 percent to 32 percent.
The NBC/WSJ/Marist poll was conducted from Monday through Wednesday. The poll surveyed 722 likely GOP primary voters and 425 Democratic voters. The GOP poll has a margin of error of 3.6 percent; while the Democratic survey has a margin of error of 4.8 percent.
The South Carolina Republican primary is Saturday. Democrats head to the polls in the Palmetto State on Feb. 27.
