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SALT LAKE CITY — Some may disagree with his antics and outspoken nature, but business-tycoon-turned-presidential-hopeful Donald Trump has surged to No. 1 in a recent presidential poll.
Trump, who has taken heat recently for his comments on immigration, hasn’t fallen out of public favor when compared to other Republican presidential hopefuls. In this week’s Economist/YouGov poll, Trump leads all Republican hopefuls with 15 percent of all respondents as their first choice as the “preferred GOP nominee for president.”
Trump significantly extends his lead when looking at the respondents' second favorite nominee. As a result, one in four registered Republicans say Trump is their first or second choice.
Republicans following Trump are Jeb Bush (11 percent), Rand Paul (11 percent), Scott Walker (9 percent), Marco Rubio (9 percent), Mike Huckabee (9 percent), Ben Carson (7 percent), Chris Christie (6 percent), Ted Cruz (4 percent) and seven other candidates at 3 percent or below.
YouGov said despite the immigration comments made by Trump, he “may be striking a chord” with the Tea Party.
“They are much less likely to have a college education than are other Republican, and they are more likely than other Republicans to say they are ‘very’ conservative,” YouGov said in its poll analysis.
Despite the surge in support, Trump is not the most likely Republican nominee, according to the poll. Jeb Bush earns that praise with 29 percent of respondents saying he’s the “likely” nominee. Bush is followed by Rand Paul (12 percent), Marco Rubio (8 percent), Scott Walker (8 percent) and Donald Trump (7 percent).
Real Clear Politics, which tracks several polling data outlets, has Bush as a 5.8 percent favorite to win the Republican nomination. Recent polls from CNN, Fox News and NBC/Wall Street Journal all corroborate Real Clear Politics’ data.
Contributing: Andrew Adams
