New Times, Zogby Polls: Trump Pulling Away From GOP Rivals

Two new nationwide polls show GOP front-runner Donald Trump has kept his commanding lead over his Republican rivals and may be pulling away from the field.

A preview of a New York Times/CBS poll released Thursday morning shows Trump with the support of 35 percent of GOP primary voters, more than twice of his nearest rival Ted Cruz (16 percent).

More impressive is Trump’s overwhelming lead in a Zogby Analytics poll released on Wednesday in which Trump widened his national lead to 25 points.

That Trump would continue to surge despite his incendiary comments about Muslims should come as no surprise, given the results of a recent Bloomberg survey. Almost two-thirds of likely 2016 Republican primary voters favor Donald Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the U.S., while more than a third say it makes them more likely to vote for him.

“We believe these numbers are made up of some people who are truly expressing religious bigotry and others who are fearful about terrorism and are willing to do anything they think might make us safer,” Doug Usher, who runs polling for Washington-based Purple Strategies, said in his analysis of his poll’s findings. “This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign.”

The New York Times poll was conducted from Dec. 4 to Dec. 8, the day he called for a temporary ban on Muslims. The Zogby poll was conducted after Trump’s comments.

A Fox News pollreleased Wednesday also showed Trump’s support increased in South Carolina after his call for a Muslim ban. Half of that poll was conducted before Trump’s remarks and showed 30-percent support for the front-runner. The half conducted after his comment saw Trump’s support increase eight points.

Here are the results of the Zogby survey of 271 voters:

Trump: 38 percent.
Carson: 13 percent.
Marco Rubio: 12 percent.
Ted Cruz: 8 percent.
Jeb Bush: 7 percent.
Chris Christie: 4 percent.
Carly Fiorina: 3 percent.

The remaining eight candidates: Less than 1 percent each.

The full results of the Times poll will be released Thursday night.

Preliminary findings show:
Trump: 35 percent
Cruz: 16 percent Carson:
13 percent Rubio, 9 percent
The rest of the field has 4 percent or less.
Carson’s support is half what it was in the Times’ last poll conducted in late October. Cruz’s support has increased four-fold since that poll.

While Trump supporters say they are sure they will vote for him, Republicans overall are not so sure, with 64 percent saying it is still too early to commit to a candidate.

Read more at NEWSMAX.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}