A new poll from Public Policy Polling has billionaire Donald Trump at the top of the crowded field of Republican Party presidential contenders, even as voters are having obvious issue with his negative comments on 2008 GOP nominee John McCain.
Trump is at 19 percent in the national poll, to 17 percent for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 12 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and 10 percent each for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is at 8 percent, and no other candidate in the 17-person field gets above 4 percent.
The poll found that only 22 percent of Republican voters agree with the comments made by Trump regarding McCain’s war service. Trump last weekend derided McCain, a POW during the Vietnam War, dismissing the notion that McCain is a war hero just because he was captured by the enemy.
The PPP polling found that Trump’s favorability ratings dropped 10 points over the past week, likely a reflection of impact from the generated controversy over McCain.
The poll had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a sizable lead among Democratic voters, at 57 pecent, to 22 percent for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 5 percent for former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, 3 percent for former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and 2 percent for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Sanders’ standing reflects a big jump from where he’d been a month ago nationally. A June PPP poll had Sanders at 9 percent, so he enjoyed a 13-point bump to get to 22 percent, with Clinton’s numbers going down from 65 percent last month to 57 percent this month.
Clinton still leads all of the challengers in the Republican field by margins ranging from three to 13 points. Trump is the GOP candidate who would be the weakest, trailing Clinton in a head-to-head matchup, 50-37.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul actually fares the best, trailing by three points, at 45-42.
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