Trump holds double-digit lead in 2 national polls
A pair of national polls released Monday find Donald Trump holding a double-digit lead over Republican presidential rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz.
Trump holds a 20-point lead in the CBS News/New York Times poll, with 46 percent support, followed by Cruz at 26 percent and Kasich at 20 percent.
The results of the poll come as Kasich insists he’ll stay in the GOP race, despite the urging of Cruz, and as Trump turns to focus on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s rivals are pushing to keep him below the required 1,237 delegates needed to lock up the nomination, forcing a contested convention in the summer to select a nominee.
The CNN/ORC poll finds Trump would see the most excitement if he were the nominee, with 40 percent of Republican and GOP-leaning independents saying they would be enthusiastic with him as the nominee.
That compares to 28 percent voicing the same sentiment if Cruz were the nominee, and 19 percent holding the same belief of Kasich. Still, 21 percent would be “upset” if Trump was the nominee, compared to 14 percent for Cruz and 17 percent for Kasich.
Three-quarters of GOP primary voters surveyed in the CBS/NYT poll expect Trump to be their nominee, with 35 percent saying they would enthusiastically support him, compared to 29 percent for Cruz and 27 percent for Kasich.
The CBS/NYT survey of 1,252 adults including 1,058 registered voters and 362 Republicans was conducted March 17-20 via land lines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 3 points.
The CNN/ORC survey of 1,001 adults including 925 registered voters and 397 Republicans was conducted March 17-20 via land lines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 3 points
