Sunday morning CNN/ORC released the first major poll since Wednesday’s GOP debate and, as many have predicted the “pot” has been stirred. Donald Trump still leads but has fallen back a bit. Carly Fiorina’s stellar debate performance has catapulted her into second place and support for Marco Rubio has also jumped. Dr. Ben Carson lost a little ground, while Jeb Bush, who needed a good debate to show some support gains, remained flat at 9%.
Trump holds the lead with 24%, meaning he lost a quarter of his support since prior to the debate. Ben Carson seemed to be gaining momentum before the debate, reaching 19%, but is now at 14%.
The big winner was Fiorina who was at 3% before her strong debate performance and now sits in second place just ahead of Carson with 15%. Rubio also at 3% before the debate jumped up to 11% behind Carson.
Another big surprise was that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who led the FOP field most of the spring, continued his slide. The governor was at 5% poll before the debate and now registers at >0.5%.
The poll also shows that perhaps it is time for some of those people at the bottom who participated in the “happy hour debate” to drop out and leave the race to people who can rally some support.
As for the debate itself, more than half of all Republicans agreed that Fiorina won (52%), followed by Rubio (14%), and Trump (11%).
On the negative side, 31% believe Trump lost the debate, followed by Rand Paul (22%) and Bush (9%).
Keep in mind that we are still months away from the first contest — the Iowa Caucus, which falls on Feb. 1, 2016 — and that a lot can happen between now and then.
The full CNN/ORC poll is embedded below:
Cross-posted at The Lid
