Sen. Rand Paul has surged into the lead of a wide field of possible 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls, according to a new poll, while Sen. Marco Rubio has dropped from first place to sixth.
According to the
Public Policy Polling survey conducted July 19-21, the junior senator from Kentucky leads every other candidate with 16 percent support, his highest since the April survey.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan are all at 13 percent, in the survey of 800 registered voters, while Texas Rep. Ted Cruz comes in at 12 percent.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, once at the top of the list, now has only 10 percent support, a significant decrease from the 21 percent support he had in the April poll.
"The trend in the Republican primary field is pretty clear," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. "Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are up and Marco Rubio is down."
In the general election, the poll found that while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the lead against every potential GOP candidate, those leads are narrowing.
In a match-up with Christie, her lead is within the margin of error, with Clinton at 43 percent and Christie at 42 percent.
Ryan, meanwhile, would also come in a close second against Clinton. Forty-six percent of respondents would support Clinton while 44 percent would go for Ryan. Clinton also narrowly leads Bush, 46 percent to 44 percent.
The poll also found that in a Democratic presidential primary, Clinton is the clear front-runner with 52 percent support compared to 12 percent who would back Vice President Joe Biden, though Biden would have a 21 percent lead over every other potential candidate if Clinton didn't run.
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