Donald Trump nearly doubles lead in New Hampshire

Though still far behind, the governor is second to Trump in the latest WBUR poll in first-primary state New Hampshire, where he is spending lots of time and is pounding his national security message in light of the recent terrorist attacks. The latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll, released Thursday, shows that Christie’s overall job approval now stands at just 33 percent among New Jersey voters.

That 18 point lead is compared to the 10 point lead he had over then, second-place Carly Fiorina. The big surprise is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (11 percent, 12 percent with leaners), who has emerged from the bottom of the heap.

Donald Trump still remains atop the New Hampshire leaderboard in a new poll from Boston’s WBUR, but another candidate seems to have caught some momentum in the Granite State, too.

Though Christie’s poll numbers aren’t close to Trump’s, they still represent a sharp turnaround as the governor has relentlessly campaigned in New Hampshire. That’s a drop of six points since October. Chris Christie more than doubled his support in three weeks, climbing to a tie for second place with Marco Rubio, 27/11/11. An Associated Press-GfK poll taken before Trump’s remarks showed three-quarters of Republican voters think the United States is taking too many immigrants from the Middle East.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives at a marketing crusade stop last week in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire rewards retail politics, and Christie has hustled through the state with vigor unmatched by any other candidate. The slide comes as Carson’s campaign has struggled with foreign policy and media scrutiny.

“I think he’s in the best position right now”, says Brown, who tells TWS he probably won’t endorse a candidate until around the third week of January. Bush and Kasich followed with 8% and 7%, respectively.

“I know people want to believe that Trump is going to fall”, said Dave Carney, a longtime adviser to former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and President George H.W. Bush who’s now a GOP strategist based in New Hampshire. The poll had a margin of error of 4.9 percent. And asked who is the best candidate on taxes, 36 percent chose Trump, 10 percent chose Bush and 8 percent chose Kasich.

Trump, despite leading the poll and despite having a strong favorable/unfavorable rating, is also the most unpopular GOP candidate, the survey center said.

Rubio was viewed favorably by 61 percent of those polled and unfavorably by 23 percent, while Trump’s favorable/unfavorable rating was 57 percent/36 percent and Christie’s rating was 53 percent/34 percent.