Marco Rubio in second place in latest national Quinnipiac poll

Marco Rubio, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning.

Cruz said the suggestion Republicans want to ban contraceptives is spread by Democrats like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton because their views on another issue important to women – abortion – are outside the mainstream. Bernie Sanders, getting 60 percent support to his 30 percent.

The remaining candidates all fall into single digits, with the leader among them, Jeb Bush, polling at just five percent.

“But also in that poll, what I read a lot into is the rise of Rubio and Sen”. Last month, Trump was at 24 percent, followed closely by Carson at 23 percent. The margin of error is approximately 3 percentage points.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee confirmed that the memo was shared confidentially with Republican advisers in September, one of a series the committee has prepared on a range of presidential candidates.

In an interview with Bloomberg Politics, Cruz assailed Rubio for backing the 2011 military action in Libya and supporting the arming of rebels in Syria. On the Democratic side, it was consistent with others that have shown Clinton with a wide lead over Sanders. She runs ahead of Cruz by five points (47/42) after trailing him by three, and now edges Rubio 45/44 after trailing 41/46 last month. Her lead has widened by 12 points since an October Quinnipiac poll.

Both of the front-runners have a problem with trustworthiness.

In the case of a Cruz presidency, Sen.

American voters say 60 – 36 percent that Clinton is not honest and trustworthy. Only 42 percent of Republican voters now say Carson has the right experience to be president, plummeting from 64 percent just four weeks ago. In this latest poll, Sanders performs equally well as Clinton against Republicans or better. Ted Cruz of Texas, and below Marco Rubio, the Florida senator. And, Cruz’s trend line is quite clear and quite good. He’s now at 5 percent and all the money in the world won’t compensate for his political ineptitude.

Carson, who has been buoyed by the support of social conservatives, has been among the most gaffe-prone candidates this cycle.

“Trump will continue to advance those messages, but you don’t have to go along with his more extreme positioning”. Just 19 percent of white evangelicals support Carson’s White House bid, down from 32 percent support.

“He does show strength, he’s an entrepreneur and he’s willing to change Washington”, McCarthy said of Trump.

While Trump has the most support, 26 percent of Republicans polled said they “would definitely not support” the candidate.