Ted Cruz overtakes Donald Trump in new NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday night found a new frontrunner in the Republican presidential race: Ted Cruz. The junior senator from Texas had the support of 28 percent of GOP primary voters nationwide, versus 26 percent for Donald Trump — a 7-point tumble for Trump from the January NBC/WSJ poll (though about what he was polling in December's survey). Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) came in third with 17 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 11 percent, Ben Carson came in at 10 percent, and Jeb Bush had a new low of 4 percent.
Republican pollster Bill McInturff said his poll, conducted Feb. 14-16 in concert with Democratic pollster Fred Yang, likely represents a "pause" as GOP voters take a new look at Trump after Saturday's feisty debate. Most national polls show Trump comfortably in the lead, but some of those included polling conducted before the debate, NBC News points out. "When you see a number this different, it means you might be right on top of a shift in the campaign," McInturff said. "What you don't know yet is if the change is going to take place or if it is a momentary 'pause' before the numbers snap back into place," as they did for Trump after a previous "pause" last summer.
The NBC/WSJ poll has Trump still leading in South Carolina, but in head-to-head matchups with rival GOP candidates, he loses to Cruz and Rubio. The poll included 400 Republican primary voters and has a margin of error of ±4.9 percentage points. Learn more in the NBC News report below. Peter Weber
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Time blindness: is being late a disorder?In The Spotlight Understanding the cause of chronic tardiness can save a relationship
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 JanuaryQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Is Elon Musk’s AI tool a platform for abuse?Podcast Plus can Mumsnet predict who will be the next PM? And who is still watching Avatar sequels?
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
