A new poll that includes two full days of questioning after businessman Donald Trump made controversial remarks at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa on Saturday about Sen. John McCain’s(R-AZ)) war record shows Trump did not lose support despite taking a hammering from pundits and politicians desperate to drive Trump from the presidential race.
The poll released Tuesday afternoon by Morning Consult shows Trump leading the pack of GOP presidential contenders with 22 percent. His nearest competitors are former Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 15 percent and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker at 12 percent. No other GOP candidate had support above eight percent.
Morning Consult’s Reid Wilson exclaimed on Twitter:
New poll: Trump 22, Bush 15, Walker 12. We did NOT see Trump's numbers decline after his attacks on McCain – http://t.co/OhAjoAAL9c
— Reid Wilson (@PoliticsReid) July 21, 2015
“New poll: Trump 22, Bush 15, Walker 12. We did NOT see Trump’s numbers decline after his attacks on McCain -”
Wilson wrote about details of the survey, including an important observation that Trump has gained support from an earlier poll taken this month, passing Jeb Bush who has lost support.
“The Morning Consult survey, conducted July 17 through July 20 among 1,978 registered voters, includes a subsample of 754 self-identified Republican and Republican-leaning voters who say they will participate in the party’s presidential nominating contest, for a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
“There is no evidence that Trump’s numbers have slumped after comments he made questioning Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) war record. Though most of the rest of the Republican field — and even the Republican National Committee — loudly criticized Trump after he made the comments on Saturday morning at an event in Iowa, voters interviewed afterward weren’t any less likely to say they support him.
“In fact, Trump has gained ground since a Morning Consult poll earlier this month, when he trailed Bush by a 19 percent to 17 percent margin. This week Trump is the second choice of 12 percent of voters, behind Bush’s 18 percent.”
The poll shows Trump’s favorable/unfavorable opinion with Republican voters at 49 percent favorable to 41 percent unfavorable.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday that only had one day of polling post-Iowa had Trump at 24 percent. Walker was second at 13 percent and Jeb Bush third at 12 percent with the rest of the field below nine percent.
The Post reported Trump’s support “fell sharply” in Sunday’s polling of an admittedly small sample size that the Post insisted was “statistically significant.”
It would appear the Morning Consult poll refutes that assertion as wishful thinking by the establishment political class.
