Even $30 million in TV ads can't buy Jeb Bush love in the polls

(Image credit: David Becker/Getty Images)

published 2 December 2015

Jeb Bush really can't gain traction in the polls. In the last couple months, the former Florida governor's campaign has been given the largest investment from any one group in the 2016 race thus far — $30 million worth of television ads from super PAC Right to Rise. He has launched a comeback campaign, changed up his strategy, and brushed up on his on-air personality. And still, his poll numbers haven't budged.

The Republican presidential candidate has "barely registered" in polls nationwide and in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, The Wall Street Journal reports. In the latest national Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday, for instance, Bush came in a whopping 22 points behind frontrunner Donald Trump, with only 5 percent support.

If his poll numbers weren't evidence enough that his efforts have been unsuccessful, The Wall Street Journal also found confirmation from Republican voters. In a year dominated by Trump's rhetoric, one voter said that a "polished politician" like Bush doesn't fit the bill of someone "who will shake things up." Another suggested that Bush has been too focused on what he accomplished as governor of Florida, when "his message should be the direction he wants to take the country."