Two Floridians — former Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio — top other 2016 GOP contenders in a new poll, with 23 percent of Republican primary voters picking Mr. Bush as their first choice to win the party’s presidential primary and 18 percent picking Mr. Rubio.
Fourteen percent of voters in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll picked Mr. Bush as their second choice, while 23 percent picked Mr. Rubio as their second choice.
Seventy-four percent of GOP voters could see themselves supporting Mr. Rubio — the highest among the candidates and potential candidates included in the poll — compared to 15 percent who said they could not see themselves supporting him. That breakdown is up from a 56 percent/26 percent split in March, before Mr. Rubio launched his candidacy.
Seventy percent said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Bush, compared to 27 percent who said they could not see themselves supporting him — a big jump from last month’s 49 percent/42 percent split.
After Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio came Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was the first choice of 14 percent of primary voters, then Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 11 percent.
Sixty-one percent said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Walker, compared to 16 percent who said they could not.
Fifty-nine percent said they could support Mr. Paul and 32 percent said they could not, up from a 49 percent/40 percent split in March. Fifty-seven percent said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Cruz and 28 percent said they could not, up from a 40 percent/38 percent split in March.
They were followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who announced his candidacy Monday, at 7 percent, then former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 5 percent apiece.
Thirty-nine percent said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Carson and 22 percent said they could not. Fifty-two percent said they could support Mr. Huckabee, while 39 percent said they could not, and 38 percent said they could support Mr. Christie, while 50 percent said they could not.
Mr. Huckabee is expected to announced his candidacy Tuesday, and Mr. Cruz and Mr. Paul, along with Mr. Rubio, are already in the race.
Next came former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 2 percent and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who also announced her candidacy Monday, at 1 percent.
Forty-five percent said they could see themselves supporting Mr. Perry, while 34 percent said they could not, and 17 percent said they could see themselves supporting Ms. Fiorina, while 25 percent said they could not.
The survey of 1,000 adults was taken April 26-30, and the margin of error among the 251 Republican primary voters is plus or minus 6.2 percentage points.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.