http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/how-popular-is-donald-trump-222728By Nolan D. McCaskill
05/03/16 06:52 AM EDT
Donald Trump reached a new high among Republicans in a national NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday.
The real estate mogul has
56 percent support, more than doubling his advantage over Ted Cruz, who sits at 22 percent. John Kasich rounds out the survey with 14 percent support. An additional 7 percent remain undecided.
Trump is the only Republican candidate with any mathematical path to securing the GOP nomination outright, though Cruz and Kasich are hoping to emerge as the nominee at a contested convention in July should Trump fall short of the requisite 1,237 delegates.
A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters (58 percent), however, say Kasich should drop out of the race right now. The Ohio governor has won just a single state throughout the primary. Almost 40 percent said Cruz, who has outmaneuvered the front-runner in several states by securing delegates who would switch their allegiance to his campaign once they’re unbound from Trump, should fight on through the convention. Thirty-six percent said Cruz should drop out now, and another 23 percent said he should drop out after the last primaries.
In a move meant to show that he’s in it until the end,
Cruz named name former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate, though voters aren’t excited about his decision.
Almost half said they were dissatisfied by his announcement, and 45 percent believe he chose Fiorina because she’s a woman. Only 12 percent, however, believe he chose her because she’s the best veep candidate. Instead, 84 percent said he chose Fiorina in effort to revitalize his campaign.
