ELECTION 2016

SERIOUS SURGE FOR TRUMP IN POLLS, RAND PAUL NAMED 'BIGGEST LOSER'

'Pretty embarrassing to trail Donald with evangelicals'

Joe Kovacs

Two new polls released Monday show a surge of support for Donald Trump in the Republican race for president, with Carly Fiorina said to be on fire and Rand Paul called “the biggest loser” in the early voting state of Iowa.

Trump experienced a seven-point jump in the Morning Consult poll, leading the GOP pack at 32 percent. His next closest rival, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, clocked in at 11 percent. Trump’s cushion is so large in the survey, he leads the next three candidates combined.

“Trump’s support shows no evidence of slipping after he told a CNN anchor on Friday night that [Megyn] Kelly, one of three moderators overseeing the Fox News debate, had ‘blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever,’” Morning Consult’s Reid Wilson wrote about the poll.

Morning Consult Poll from Aug. 9, 2015, shows Donald Trump with an expanding lead

Trump’s favorability ratings also skyrocketed in the Morning Consult survey.

“The share of Republican primary voters who say they view Trump favorably increased since the last tracking poll, to 62 percent from 57 percent,” Wilson wrote. “But the number of registered voters who say they see Trump unfavorably remains high, 52 percent of all voters say they see him in a negative light. That makes Trump both the most popular candidate within the Republican field and the least popular candidate Republicans could nominate for next year’s general election.”

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Meanwhile, Public Policy Polling surveyed Iowa voters in the aftermath of Thursday’s first round of GOP debates and Trump’s verbal skirmish with Megyn Kelly.

Trump ranks No. 1 at 19 percent in that poll, compared to 12 percent for Ben Carson and Scott Walker, 11 percent for Jeb Bush, 10 percent for Carly Fiorina, 9 percent for Ted Cruz, and 6 percent for Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio.

“Donald Trump’s public fight with Fox News might hurt him in the long run,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “But for the time being he continues to lead the pack.”

The other nine candidates are all clustered between 3 percent and having no support at all (George Pataki).

John Kasich and Rand Paul are at 3 percent, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum at 2 percent, Chris Christie at 1 percent, and Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, and Pataki all have less than 1 percent.

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“Trump does have the advantage with pretty much every segment of the GOP electorate,” PPP noted. “He’s up with evangelicals, men, women, voters in every age group, moderates, voters who are most concerned with having the candidate who is most conservative on the issues, and voters who are most concerned about having a candidate who can win the general election.”

Public Policy Polling says the biggest winner coming out of the debate appears to be Carly Fiorina.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina

“Her favorability rating is now 56/15, compared to 30/15 when we polled Iowa in April,” it explained. “She was such a nonfactor the last time we polled that we didn’t even bother to include her in the horse race question but now she’s at 10 percent and in the top 5. Fiorina also ties with Walker as the most frequent second choice of GOP voters at 11 percent.”

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Besides Fiorina, the only other candidate who seems to have any momentum in Iowa is Carson, as the poll saw his support jump from 5 percent in April to 12 percent now.The neurosurgeon is also the most popular candidate in the field, with a 69/10 favorability rating, up from a 44/15 spread in April.

“The biggest loser in the poll is Rand Paul,” says PPP. “He now has a negative favorability rating at 31/45. That gives him the worst numbers of anyone in the field, outdistancing even Chris Christie on the unpopularity front. Paul’s 3 percent standing represents a drop all the way down from 10 percent in April.”

U.S. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Besides Paul, the candidate worst off in this poll is Christie.

“He’s never been strong in Iowa,” says PPP. “He was at 5 percent in April, but now he’s polling in asterisk territory at 1 percent. Christie’s overall image has actually improved. He’s still unpopular with a 34/44 favorability rating but that’s better than 28/50 in April, but he may be losing voters who value his tough-talk style to Trump.”

Scott Walker (from 23 percent to 12 percent), Marco Rubio (from 13 percent to 6 percent), and Mike Huckabee (from 10 percent to 6 percent) all saw sizable drops in their support over the last four months.

“The good news for them though is that they’re still among the most popular candidates in the state, right behind Carson,” said PPP.

Walker is tied with Fiorina as the most frequent second choice of voters at 11 percent and Rubio is in double digits on that front as well at 10 percent.

“Still, it has to be pretty embarrassing for Huckabee to trail Trump 18 to 9 with evangelicals,” the pollster stated.

Jeb Bush (12 percent in April, 11 percent now) and Ted Cruz (8 percent in April, 9 percent now) are both holding pretty steady.

“And despite his support for the nomination being flat, voters are warming up to Bush some,” said PPP. “His 45/32 favorability is an improvement from 38/37 in the spring.”

Other quick notes from Iowa:

• Although they have minimal support for the nomination at this point Bobby Jindal (59/14 favorability), Rick Perry (56/23), and Rick Santorum (55/22) are all quite well liked by Iowa Republican voters. They could do better later on in the race.

• Showing basically no hope at all are Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, and George Pataki. They’re all polling at zero. Gilmore (20 percent name recognition) and Pataki (39 percent name recognition) are unknown to a majority of voters, and Graham (22/33 favorability) is disliked by the voters who are familiar with him.

The two polls released Monday echo a scientific NBC News Online Survey that came out Sunday, having Trump at the top of the GOP field with scoring 23 percent support, a gain of 1 percentage point from NBC’s previous poll.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/serious-surge-for-trump-in-polls-biggest-loser-also-named/#pyDCMpDpVxm5zBgx.99