Donald Trump has nearly a double-digit lead over Ben Carson in the race for the GOP’s presidential nomination, a new poll says.
Trump is ahead of Carson by 9 points as the top pick among likely Republican primary voters next year, according to the University of Massachusetts survey. He took support from 31 percent of respondents, compared with 22 percent for Carson.
{mosads}Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ranked third with 13 percent, the only other Republican White House hopeful to score double-digit support. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was next at 9 percent.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) tied for fourth and fifth place with 4 percent apiece.
Trump also scored a bump in support in a new Morning Consult poll released Tuesday, taking 38 percent support, doubling Carson’s tally of 19 percent. Some of the poll was taken in the days after the Paris terrorist attacks.
Despite his lead over the GOP field, the UMass poll also found that Trump is not the second choice for most likely 2016 GOP primary voters.
Carson takes that honor, with 16 percent saying he is their second choice, versus Trump’s 9 percent.
Rubio and Cruz also edge out the billionaire as being the second choice of voters, with 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Most likely GOP primary voters say Trump is the Republican most capable of winning the White House in 2016. Forty percent said Trump has the best shot, while 24 percent said Carson was most capable of winning.
UMass conducted its latest sampling of 318 likely Republican primary voters via online interviews Nov. 5-13. The poll has a 6.4 percent margin of error.
Carson and Trump are currently neck and neck for the GOP’s 2016 presidential coronation nationwide.
Exactly 1 point presently separates the two men, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of samplings.
Trump sneaks past Carson with 24.3 percent to the retired neurosurgeon’s 23.3 percent in the index’s latest edition.
He recently began sharply criticizing Carson as “pathological” for stories about overcoming his violent past.
Carson’s campaign has responded by urging supporters to “pray” for the real estate tycoon.
This story was updated at 1:09 p.m.