Donald Trump has solidified his strongest position in the lead up to the Republican presidential nomination, with thirty-five percent of Republican primary voters supporting the real estate mogul, according to a CBS/New York Times poll released Thursday.
The new poll puts Trump 13 points higher since the last CBS poll was conducted in October. Perhaps not surprisingly, Trump immediately took to Twitter to promote the results.
Wow, my poll numbers have just been announced and have gone through the roof!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2015
Yet, nearly two-thirds of American voters say they are concerned or frightened about a potential Trump presidency, The New York Times reports.
Ted Cruz has moved into second place with 16 percent of those polled supporting him, quadrupling what he received in the previous CBS/NYT poll.
The recent rise of Cruz in recent state and national polls coincides with two endorsements among social conservatives announced on Wednesday. Both the National Organization for Marriage and conservative activist Richard A. Viguerie pledged their support for Cruz, The New York Times reported.
The rest of the 2016 Republican field is either falling or at very low levels in the poll.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who led the poll at 26 percent in October, fell to third place with 13 percent. None of the other candidates polled in double digits. Marco Rubio is in fourth place with 9 percent. Jeb Bush is getting the support of 3 percent of Republican primary voters, which is his lowest percentage thus far in CBS polling. Carly Fiorina's support has also dropped, with just 1 percent.
However, nearly two-thirds of Republican primary voters responded that it's "too early" to say that their decision was firm.
The poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,275 adults from Dec. 4-8, with a 6 percentage point margin of error.
While most of the polling took place before Trump made his controversial comments about temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States, a Bloomberg poll released Wednesday indicates his comments may only have a positive impact on how Republican voters will view Trump.
In that poll, nearly two-thirds of likely GOP primary voters support Trump's call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
