Trump stakes 18-point lead in NH poll
Businessman Donald Trump has increased his lead in New Hampshire’s GOP presidential primary to 18 percentage points, a poll found Tuesday — nearly double his lead in September.
Trump has 32 percent in the Granite State, the CNN/WMUR survey found.
{mosads}Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ranks second with 14 percent, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in third at 9 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 8 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 7 percent.
In the September edition of the same poll, Trump led with 26 percent, with Carly Fiorina behind him at 16 percent. Rubio came in third in the September poll with 9 percent, with Kasich and Bush further down at 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
The December poll found that 59 percent believe Trump is winning New Hampshire’s primary. And 34 percent believe he is the Republican candidate with the best chance of winning the general election.
Respondents called Trump their top choice for handling a variety of policy issues. About 45 percent said he could best handle illegal immigration, and 42 percent said the same for government spending.
Nearly 33 percent pick Trump as the best GOP hopeful for battling the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. And 36 percent selected him as most capable of tackling taxes.
CNN/WMUR conducted its survey of 402 likely Republican presidential primary voters in New Hampshire from Nov. 30-Dec. 7. It has a 4.9 percent margin of error.
The poll was conducted before Trump’s Monday call for a temporary ban on allowing Muslims to enter the U.S.
– Updated at 7:35 p.m.
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