According to the most recent Marquette Law School poll released Thursday, the lead Republican candidate strengthened his position, while the gap between leading Democratic contenders narrowed, as the candidates continue the race to the primaries
On the Republican side, Donald Trump gained 5 points from the November Marquette poll, earning him the top spot for Republican voters, with support from 24 percent of those polled. Behind him are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, with 18 percent, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with 16 percent.
Marquette Law School Poll: Ben Carson moves to frontrunner position for Wisconsin GOP voters
Forty-nine percent of Republican primary voters said they think Trump is most likely to win the Republican nomination, even if they didn’t personally support him.
Ben Carson lost 14 points since November, and now only 8 percent of polled voters support him. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has 5 percent support, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and Carly Fiorina have 3 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have 2 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 1 percent. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, received no support.
For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton leads U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, by only 2 percentage points, narrowing the gap from past polls. In the November poll, Clinton and Sanders had a gap of 9 percent. Now, 45 percent of polled Wisconsin voters support Clinton, and Sanders trails with 43 percent. One percent of those polled back former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
For the Wisconsin Senate race, Russ Feingold is still the current front-runner, receiving 50 percent of votes, compared to Republican Ron Johnson’s 38 percent. These numbers have not changed much from the November poll, which had Feingold at 49 percent and Johnson at 38 percent.
Of those polled, 57 percent said they disapproved of Walker’s handling of his job, and 38 percent said they approved. Sixty-one percent said they did not want to see Walker seek a third term as governor, while 36 percent said they would want to see him run again.
Respondents also answered questions about their approval of gun control laws. Sixty-three percent said they were in favor of the current concealed-carry law, with 31 percent in opposition.
For immigration issues, 57 percent of respondents said they supported allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship. Twenty-one percent said they were in favor of requiring undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S., while 17 percent supported a temporary guest worker alternative.
Eight hundred and six registered Wisconsin voters were interviewed for the poll from Jan. 21-24. Three hundred and thirteen of those polled were Republican and 312 were Democrat.
