Sen. Marco Rubio has jumped out to take a slim lead in a new national poll on the 2016 GOP field — the second poll released this week showing the Florida Republican out in front.
Mr. Rubio was at 13 percent in the Fox News poll, up from 8 percent last month, before he announced his presidential candidacy on April 13.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was right behind Mr. Rubio at 12 percent, but slipped from 15 percent in March. Next was Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 10 percent, who announced his candidacy a week before Mr. Rubio and was at 9 percent in the March poll.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was tied with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 9 percent; Mr. Bush had been at 12 percent last month.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who announced he was running for president last month, was at 8 percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 6 percent apiece. Mr. Carson lost the most ground since last month, falling from 11 percent.
No other candidate on the Republican side was above 5 percent.
SEE ALSO: Marco Rubio emerges as top GOP contender; Hillary Clinton favorables drop in poll
Mr. Paul actually came closest to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, in a head-to-head match-up, trailing her by 3 points, 46 percent to 43 percent. She led both Mr. Rubio and Mr. Bush by four-point margins, Mr. Cruz by five points, and Mr. Walker by six points.
Mr. Rubio also led the field in a Quinnipiac University poll, also released Thursday, and fared the best against Mrs. Clinton in a head-to-head match-up in that survey, trailing her by a 2-point, 45 percent to 43 percent margin.
The Fox poll also showed that Mrs. Clinton is in control of the Democratic nomination, with 62 percent of the vote, but that voters are also doubting her honesty and trustworthiness.
Fifty-one percent of registered voters said Mrs. Clinton was not honest and trustworthy, compared to 45 percent who said she was. She has been dogged in recent days by questions over her private email system she used as secretary of state and donations that flowed to the Clinton Foundation while she was in office.
In the Quinnipiac poll, 54 percent of voters said Mrs. Clinton was not honest and trustworthy, compared to 38 percent who said she was.
The survey of 1,012 registered voters was taken from April 19-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The smaller subsamples of Democratic and Republican primary voters have margins of error of plus or minus 5 points.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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