Trump leads first national 2016 poll by 17 points

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
(Image credit: Ty Wright/Getty Images)

New year, same big lead for Donald Trump. The NBC News/Survey Monkey poll, which came out Tuesday, reveals that Trump continues to lead the Republican presidential field by a wide margin in 2016, with 35 percent to second-place Ted Cruz's 18 percent. In third is Marco Rubio with 13 percent, followed by Ben Carson with 9 percent, Jeb Bush with 6 percent, Chris Christie with 4 percent, and Carly Fiorina with 3 percent.

The poll, the first of 2016, also found that the real estate magnate's supporters are very loyal. Over half — 51 percent — of Trump supporters said they would "absolutely" vote for him, while 33 percent said there was a "large chance" they would. Only 36 percent of Cruz supporters say they'd "absolutely" vote for him and just 26 percent of Rubio voters said the same.

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