Quinnipiac recently released a poll of 1,353 registered voters, which included 567 Republican voters. Marco Rubio received 15 percent of support, which put him in the lead over both Walker and Bush. In response to the question:
If the Republican primary for President were being held today, and the candidates were Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker, for whom would you vote?
The participants responded:
- Rubio, 15%
- Don’t know, 14%
- Bush, 13%
- Walker, 11%
- Cruz, 9%
- Paul, 8%
- Christie, 7%
- Huckabee, 7%
- Carson, 3%
- Perry, 3%
- Graham, 2%
- Kasich, 2%
- Santorum, 2%
- Fiorina, 1%
- Jindal, 1%
When they were asked which candidates they would “definitely not support,” they responded:
- No one, 38%
- Don’t know, 18%
- Bush, 17%
- Christie, 16%
- Paul, 10%
- Graham, 9%
- Cruz, 8%
- Huckabee, 6%
- Carson, 5%
- Perry, 5%
- Santorum, 5%
- Fiorina, 4%
- Kasich, 4%
- Rubio, 4%
- Jindal, 3%
- Walker, 3%
The poll also included favorability data for Christie, Paul, Huckabee, Bush, Rubio, Walker, and Cruz, allowing for use of the Frank Cannon Metric:
| Candidate | Net Favorability | Haven’t Heard Enough/Don’t Know |
| Rubio | +55 | 32% |
| Huckabee | +55 | 18% |
| Cruz | +43 | 41% |
| Paul | +43 | 30% |
| Walker | +42 | 48% |
| Bush | +33 | 24% |
| Christie | +8 | 28% |
The respondents to this poll were by far the most favorable to more candidates than the polls I have previously covered. However, Christie still turned in relatively low favorability numbers. Senator Rubio turned in good results in all three categories: he had the most support, close to the lowest non-support, and a good score on the Frank Cannon Metric. The official announcement of his candidacy no doubt gave him a bump, and it will be interesting to see if he is able to continue to build on his current momentum moving forward.
Joshua Pinho works for American Principles in Action.
