Not just New Hampshire? Christie climbs in national poll

A national Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found Trump still leads among the Republican field of candidates but showed Sen.

Cruz is the latest candidate to challenge Trump’s position atop the polls after Carson saw a surge in support only to pull back shortly afterward.

Trump got the support of 28% of likely Republican voters, nationally, the poll showed – a level virtually unchanged from the group’s survey last month – while Cruz got the support of 24%, a surge of eight percentage points since the last poll.

Marco Rubio continued to poll in third place, at 12 percent, while Ben Carson has 6 percent. Fifty percent of American voters say they’d be “embarrassed” if Trump is elected president. Forty-seven percent of independents say they would be “embarrassed” by Trump, but 44 percent of Republicans say they would be proud of him. “Ted Cruz is snapping at his heels”, he added. There are 200-person crowds showing up at his town halls and state polling that puts him in striking distance of every GOP rival but Trump.

“Social desirability may be a key factor in why Donald Trump performs better in online polls than through live-telephone interviews”, according to a study released Monday by Morning Consult, which studies political trends. Trump dominates with % of the vote, followed by Cruz at 14%, Rubio at 13%, Christie at 11%, Kasich at 8% and Bush at 6%.

“Can a candidate that half the American electorate thinks is an embarrassment win in November?” asked Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

But Trump trails both Democratic hopefuls: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Terrorism and national security are now specifically front-and-center on primary voters’ minds: in Iowa, 61 percent say it is their top decision-making criteria for candidates, ahead of the economy; in New Hampshire, 66 percent cite terrorism and security ahead of 28 percent on the economy.

The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from December 16-20 and has a margin of error for all registered voters of +/- 2.9 percentage points.

Clinton has a negative 43 – 51 percent favorability rating.

Despite maintaining his frontrunner status, the Quinnipiac poll revealed growing concern over Trump’s chances of winning the general election and of being an effective leader in the White House. But among the 508 Republicans polled and among the 462 Democrats questioned, the poll had a margin of error greater than 4 percentage points.