With exactly one year before Election Day, a new
Quinnipiac University Poll shows presidential front-runner Donald Trump sharing the limelight with retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, as the two are virtually tied at the top in the Republican primary.
And for the second time in as many days, Carson's numbers give Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton a contest, this time beating her by 10 points in a hypothetical general election.
According to the poll:
- Donald Trump gets 24 percent
- Ben Carson, 23 percent;
- Sen. Marco Rubio, 14 percent
- Sen. Ted Cruz, 13 percent;
- Fmr. Gov. Jeb Bush, 4 percent;
The poll notes that no other candidate tops 3 percent, with 9 percent undecided and 63 percent who might change their mind.
Carson, the political outsider and only African-American in the 2016 White House race, also tops the charts in terms of favorability with 82 percent.
On the opposite scale, not only did Bush's support among Republicans plummet to the low single digits, but he also fares worse among Republican voters with a 47 percent unfavorable rating.
Chris Christie's favorability is 57 percent, a vast improvement since March, when his favorability was a mere 32 percent in the Quinnipiac poll.
“Is there a doctor in the house? There certainly is and at the moment Dr. Ben Carson is delivering a troubling diagnosis to Secretary Hillary Clinton,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “With the election one year away, Ben Carson has surgically cut away all but one GOP opponent and taken a scalpel to Hillary Clinton's lead."
According to the poll, Carson defeats the Democratic front-runner by 10 points in a head-to-head general election matchup. A
WSJ/NBC poll Tuesday has him tied with Clinton.
Quinnipiac's poll also showed:
- Carson gets 50 percent to Clinton's 40 percent among American voters;
- Carson gets 45 percent to Clinton's 44 percent among female voters;
- Carson gets 55 percent to Clinton's 35 percent among male voters.
“Clinton gets crushed on character issues, pounded by Carson and closely challenged by Sen. Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio," Tim Malloy said. "But a year is an eternity in presidential campaigns and this race already has left some former front-runners on life support."
In other matchups with GOP contenders: -
- Clinton gets 46 percent to Trump's 43 percent;
- Rubio tops Clinton 46 to 41 percent;
- Cruz gets 46 percent to Clinton's 43 percent;
- New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie tops Clinton 46 to 41 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,144 registered voters nationwide between October 29 - November 2 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The survey includes 502 Republicans, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, and 480 Democrats, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.