WASHINGTON — (CNN) Donald Trump’s lead among Republicans nationally appears to be growing, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows.
Trump is the first choice of 33% of likely GOP primary voters, ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 20%, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 13% and Ben Carson at 12%, the survey shows.
They’re followed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 5% each. No other candidate tops 3%.
That 13-percentage-point lead is up from the five-point edge Trump had over Cruz in the same poll a month ago.
The poll’s results offer some good news and some bad news for Trump as the Republican race moves ahead.
The good: 65% of Republican voters say they can see themselves supporting him, a huge climb from 10 months ago, when only 23% said they could see themselves backing Trump.
The bad: In a head-to-head match-up with Cruz, Cruz actually wins, 51% to Trump’s 43%, a figure that shows why Trump has increasingly attacked Cruz, focusing on his Canadian birth and questioning his eligibility to run for president.
The candidates who the most Republicans could see themselves supporting are Cruz (at 71%) and Rubio (67%). Faring worst on this question is Bush (42%).
The poll was conducted by the Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies and the Democratic firm Hart Research Associates between January 9-13. Its margin of error among the 400 Republican primary voters polled is 4.9 percentage points.
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