Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has maintained his lead on the 2016 GOP field in a Fox News poll taken after the Sept. 16 GOP debate in California and released this week.
Mr. Trump was the choice of 26 percent of likely Republican primary voters, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 18 percent.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida were at 9 percent apiece, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 8 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 7 percent.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was at 5 percent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich was at 4 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was at 3 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 2 percent, and former New York Gov. George Pataki was at 1 percent.
In a Fox News poll taken soon after the Aug. 6 GOP debate in Cleveland, Mr. Trump had been at 25 percent, followed by Mr. Carson at 12 percent and Mr. Cruz at 10 percent.
Mr. Rubio increased his support by 5 points, from 4 percent, in that poll, and Ms. Fiorina increased her support by 4 points, from 5 percent. Support for Mr. Christie ticked up 2 points, from 3 percent.
Mr. Bush had been at 9 percent and Mr. Huckabee had been at 6 percent in August.
Ms. Fiorina was in first as to who people thought did the best job in the debates, with Mr. Trump getting the second-highest percentage for who people thought did the best job. Mr. Trump, however, also topped the list of who people thought did the worst job.
The survey of 1,013 registered voters was taken Sept. 20-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points for the smaller subset of GOP primary voters.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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