New poll shows Donald Trump with widest lead yet
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is pulling away in a new poll.
The real estate mogul dominates a new national CNN/ORC poll released Friday morning, leading by a whopping 20 percentage points after climbing 9 points since mid-October to 36 percent support. He's now more than doubled the support of his nearest rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz with 16 percent, Ben Carson with 14 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio with 12 percent.
This marks Trump's highest support and widest lead since he first announced his candidacy.
Chris Christie has the next highest support with just 4 percent. Jeb Bush dropped 5 points in the last several weeks to match Carly Fiorina with just 3 percent support. Mike Huckabee and John Kasich have 2 percent support and Rand Paul garnered 1 percent.
Ben Carson, plagued by questions over his past and doubts by voters on foreign policy in the wake of the Paris attacks, dropped 8 percentage points since mid-October. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz, focusing his efforts on the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, has climbed 12 points.
More than half of Republicans - 52 percent say Trump has the best chance of winning the general election in November, widely leading Rubio with 15 percent, Cruz with 11 percent and Carson with 10 percent. This comes despite Trump's low favorability ratings among independents in other polls.
