Donald Trump leads by more than 20 points in new national poll

Just months ago, many political observers thought it highly unlikely that Donald Trump could sustain his lead in the polls. However, on the eve of 2016, the perennial frontrunner commands 39 percent of support from Republican-inclined voters, a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday has found. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails at 18 percent — an improvement since the last CNN/ORC poll in November, but still a distant second to Trump. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio have 10 percent each. The rest of the candidates are in single digits.

Trump also has a wide lead on his competition when it comes to questions of the economy, immigration, and ISIS. Many voters also see Trump as the GOP's best shot for winning the general election, with 46 percent of voters saying Trump is their best chance compared with 50 percent who think someone else would have better luck.

CNN/ORC conducted their poll Dec. 17-21 among 438 right-leaning voters, with a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

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