2016 Presidential Polls: Ben Carson Now Leading Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Opening Big Leads
In the 2016 presidential polls, it always seemed as if Donald Trump had an insurmountable lead and firm lock on the Republican Party nomination. Well, as October is coming to a close, Ben Carson is not only closing in on him, but is actually leading him. As for the Democratic Party, Joe Biden staying out of the race has Hillary Clinton‘s lead widening.
As reported by CBS News, Ben Carson has indeed surpassed Donald Trump and now has a narrow lead for the Republican candidacy. In a poll of Republican primary voters, Carson has 26 percent of the vote while Trump is behind him with 22 percent.
Since August alone, Carson’s support has quadrupled.
No-one else in the Republican race is even close to competing with either of them. Marco Rubio is in third with eight percent while Jeb Bush is fourth with seven percent. Carly Fiorina’s support came to a bit of a halt as she is tied with Bush at seven percent.
All other candidates are sitting at four percent or lower.
Back in August, Donald Trump was pulling away from the field and enjoying rallies that brought forth some 30,000 supporters. The bad news for Trump is that he’s started losing a number of groups that formerly wanted nothing to do with Carson.
Carson is ahead of Trump among women and is running side-by-side with men. Evangelicals have started to show more support for Carson as he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with them.
The thing is, it’s still very early in the 2016 presidential election season and seven out of 10 Republican primary voters agree. Trump is still leading with moderates and is beating our Carson in voters that have a college degree, but that’s changing some too.
More than half of Trump’s voters say their mind is made up while only 19 percent of Caron’s voters are sure in their selection. That leaves a lot of room to sway one way or the other and Trump could still end up getting a lot more voters on his side before it’s all over.
In the Democratic Party, the official decision by Vice President Joe Biden to not run for president has had a big affect on the current pills. Politico states that the Benghazi testimony also being done has helped Hillary Clinton jump out to a 41-point lead in Iowa, the first caucus state.
Clinton has earned the support of nearly two in three likely participants in February’s caucus, with 65 percent. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is closest to her, but he’s in second place with just 24 percent. Martin O’Malley is even further back with five percent while Larry Lessig has just one percent.
For Sanders, 68 percent of his supporters say they have Clinton as their second choice while 19 percent have O’Malley.
Clinton’s lead in Iowa is a great sign for her campaign as the numbers aren’t just empty. Hillary Clinton has an 88 percent favorability in a positive way while only 8 percent do not. Seventy-seven percent are favorable of Sanders while 11 percent are not.
Again, it is very early in the race and the 2016 presidential polls can change drastically week to week, let alone with months remaining. There are so many factors not even in play yet and it’s still up for grabs.
The 2016 presidential polls are very telling right now, but the changes are going to be coming. Still, Hillary Clinton’s lead in the Democratic race has widened when it was once dwindling. Donald Trump’s lead is gone when it was once immense, and Ben Carson now leads the way with Republicans.
[Photo By Getty Images – Alex Wong]
