Donald Trump leads the Republican field in a USA Today/Suffolk University nationwide poll released Tuesday.
Trump garnered 17 percent, closely followed by Jeb Bush at 14 percent, putting Trump's lead within the margin of error. Scott Walker placed third with eight percent, while Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Rand Paul all placed in the low single digits.
However, in a hypothetical matchup against Hillary Clinton, Trump is at the bottom of the heap. Out of the seven Republican candidates listed, he fared worst against the Democratic frontrunner, trailing by 17 percentage points. Bush fared best against Clinton, trailing by four points. Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Scott Walker have more ground to make up against Clinton, though all less than 10 points.
The poll surveyed 1,000 adults from Thursday through Sunday with a margin of error of +/-3 percent. A sample of 349 likely Republican voters in early primary states had a larger margin of error, placed at +/-5.25 percent by the newspaper.
Trump maintains a sizable advantage in name identification, built over decades as a real estate mogul, book author and television personality. Only two percent of the individuals surveyed had never heard of him, while 27 percent had never heard of Walker, who had not declared his candidacy at the time of the poll. Sixteen percent had never heard of Rubio.
Trump also led in an Economist/YouGov poll released last Thursday, though Jeb Bush continues to lead in the majority of national polls, according to the Real Clear Politics average.