In the Republican race, Donald Trump has strengthened his support among likely GOP voters and he now leads Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by a 33-14 percent margin, the poll reveals.
Sanders and Trump are now the clear favorites in the Granite State as voters begin to firm up their choices, but an upset in the Iowa caucus next Monday could still shake things up.
The Vermont senator now leads Clinton 55-39, the poll says. Clinton’s favorable rating among likely Democratic primary voters dropped from 83 to 74 percent since a December Franklin Pierce/Herald poll, when Sanders held just a two-point lead.
The former secretary of state’s plunge in popularity comes as the poll shows Sanders now viewed favorably by an astronomical 90 percent of the 407 likely Democratic primary voters. Just nine percent of voters view the Vermont senator unfavorably.
Nearly eight in 10 likely Democratic voters indicate they have made a “firm” choice, while 82 percent of Sanders’ supporters say they won’t change their minds.
That indicates Clinton faces an extremely difficult challenge in closing the double-digit gap against Sanders before primary day on Feb. 9.
Trump, the longtime GOP frontrunner, has increased his lead over Cruz from 14 points in December to 19 points in the new Franklin Pierce-Herald poll, conducted Jan. 20-24 among 444 likely GOP primary voters.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has climbed to third place with 12 percent support, while former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gets just 9 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped to 8 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also dropped in the last month and now has just seven percent of the vote, according to the poll.
More than half of GOP voters now say they have made a firm choice, while 76 percent of Trump’s supporters say they won’t change their minds.
The new poll shows the billionaire businessman getting his highest favorability rating yet in New Hampshire at 58 percent, while 39 percent of voters view him negatively.
And 55 percent of likely GOP primary voters in the Granite State now say he’ll be the eventual nominee, a sharp increase from 38 percent in December.
Cruz’s popularity has dropped in the last month, with 54 percent viewing him favorably and 39 percent having an unfavorable opinion.
Trump’s attempt to raise questions about Cruz’s birth in Canada do not appear to be having a major effect, with about two-thirds of likely GOP voters saying
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ARG’s poll showed support for Trump at 33 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers, while 26 percent supported Cruz. That's a stronger lead for Trump than the one recorded by the same poll earlier this month, which showed Trump beating Cruz 29 percent to 25 percent.
With only one other candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), scraping into double digits at 11 percent support, this poll also suggests that the Iowa GOP caucus has turned into a two-person race between Trump and Cruz. That conclusion echoes most recent Iowa and nationwide polling. It's also consistent with other polls suggesting Trump is gaining the upper hand in the hard-fought Iowa contest.
The ARG poll was conducted from Jan. 21-24 by live telephone interviews of 400 likely Republican caucusgoers, with a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
With only one other candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), scraping into double digits at 11 percent support, this poll also suggests that the Iowa GOP caucus has turned into a two-person race between Trump and Cruz. That conclusion echoes most recent Iowa and nationwide polling. It's also consistent with other polls suggesting Trump is gaining the upper hand in the hard-fought Iowa contest.
The ARG poll was conducted from Jan. 21-24 by live telephone interviews of 400 likely Republican caucusgoers, with a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
