Trump takes commanding lead in Republican poll

His rise has caused support for the other prominent conservatives to dry up – particularly for Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio.

Another poll shows Donald Trump leading the Republican presidential field, but also topping the unacceptable list among GOP voters.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, held court among the smaller Democratic primary field, commanding 55% approval among likely voters. Sen. Bernie Sanders and even Vice President Joe Biden, who is not in the race.

The poll, conducted July 23-28, surveyed 1,644 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. He may be No. 1 with likely GOP voters, but he also leads among people who say there is “no way” they would vote for a particular candidate.

Furthermore, 27 percent of these Republican voters think Trump will ultimately win the party nomination.

“Adding the Quinnipiac poll to the CNN Poll of Polls, we find that across the last five national telephone polls, Trump averages 19% support, followed by Bush at 13% and Walker at 12%”.

And Clinton’s favorability rating is her worst ever – 41 percent favorable versus 51 percent unfavorable.

“There is a ceiling above which he never will go and this will be a problem if he makes it into the final four in the nominating process”, West said. Bush would beat either Clinton or Sanders.

Among Republicans in the Gallup poll, 48 percent ranked Perry favorably in the latest week, compared with 52 percent the previous week and 49 percent the week prior. All other Republican presidential aspirants scored 8 percent or less.

Using national polls to determine who should be on the stage “is a silly thing to do”, according to Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Trump has surged to the lead nationally in recent weeks but many political observers expected that Bush would retain the lead in Florida.

Trump has been generating waves of headlines since he leaped into the presidential race last month. Trump saw the figure as a rebuke of the conventional wisdom that calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” would cost him support among Hispanics. Bush, a former Florida governor and the third member of his family to seek the presidency, is the first choice of 10%.