Trump slips in new poll, Fiorina, Carson and Bush up

A Fox News poll released September 23 indicated that businessman Donald Trump, a frontrunner in the GOP presidential nomination polls since mid-July, no longer has the commanding lead he enjoyed just a few weeks ago.

The GOP results don’t show much of a gender divide, with Trump performing fairly evenly among men (25 percent) and women (24 percent).

Kind of makes you wonder why, between the two, or for that matter among the entire pack of Republican candidates, Fiorina is the one that gets characterized as harsh. Trump is the first choice of 21 percent of registered Republicans and voters who say they lean that way.

■ Carson trails close behind in at 15 percent.

J. Ann Selzer, president of the firm that conducted the Bloomberg poll, Selzer & Co., marveled at the combined 48% strength of Trump, Carson, and Fiorina. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson follows with 17 percent, and Fiorina came in at 12 percent. Cruz was at 5 percent in the latest survey.

Donald Trump still is the front-runner. Yet, the Republican Party seems intent on attacking itself on a personal level, not on matters of campaign issues. “They are solid, anti-politician supporters, and they’re not easily going to give up on Trump“. This is why Trump skeptics think he’s destined to fade as the race rolls on and people get more serious about the campaign. “Whether it is an act of courage or an act of despair, more than a third are opting to take the risk of backing a genuine outsider”. Trump has been a household name in real estate business and other candidates can only hope of establishing such recognition at this point.

On the Democratic side for Florida, there is both good news and bad news for Hillary Clinton in FAU’s poll.

While his rally against undocumented immigrants is shocking to most, it helped him create a large support base among conservative white Americans and black Americans who have been hit badly by the economic downfall in recent years.

Another poll, this one by Gallup, suggested that Hillary Clinton’s favorable ratings have weakened, “though it remains to be seen if fatally”, Andrew Dugan wrote. Marco Rubio of Florida (about 15%). “It’s all rooted in a notion that Mitt Romney is not president because he hit too many primary debates and I think that is just demonstrably silly”.

JU Public Policy Director Rick Mullaney says Trump has the highest unfavorability rating of any candidate in the field.

In addition to these national numbers, Trump and his team also pointed to polls showing him ahead in key primary states.