2016 Poll: Rubio, Walker Have Most Goodwill Among GOP Primary Voters
A new poll from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News shows Florida senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker have the most goodwill among Republican primary voters ahead of both men's possible bids for the presidency. The wide-ranging poll surveyed registered GOP presidential primary voters about the long list of potential candidates, asking if they could see themselves supporting each one. Of those polled, 56 percent said they could see themselves supporting Rubio, with 53 percent saying the same about Walker.
Rubio, however, received a higher percentage of those saying they could not see themselves supporting him for president (26 percent) compared to Walker (17 percent).
The other candidates register significantly worse ratings on one or both questions. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, for instance, has 53 percent of voters who say they could see themselves supporting himbut 40 percent who say they could not. There are similar numbers for former Florida governor Jeb Bush (49 percent who could support, 42 percent who could not), Kentucky senator Rand Paul (49 percent and 40 percent), and former Texas governor Rick Perry (45 percent and 40 percent).
Some potential candidates may suffer from being relatively unknown to Republican primary voters. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, for instance, gets 41 percent from people who say they could vote for him and just 18 percent who say they couldn't, while 38 percent told the pollster they did not know his name. There are similar numbers for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal (36 percent, 25 percent, and 36 percent), and former HP CEO and California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina (18 percent, 25 percent, and 54 percent).
Others look deeply in trouble. Fifty-seven percent of those polled said they could not see themselves supporting New Jersey governor Chris Christie, with just 32 percent saying the could. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham doesn't do any better, with 51 percent saying they could not support him and 20 percent saying they could.
And what about Donald Trump? The real estate mogul, media celebrity, and perennial almost-but-not-quite-ran has almost no goodwill among GOP primary voters. A full 74 percent say they could not see themselves supporting the Donald, while 23 percent say they could. (In a testament to Trump's celebrity, just one percent said they didn't know his name, the best rating among the candidates.)
The poll also looked at a hypothetical match-up between Jeb Bush and possible Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, measuring the opinions of registered voters overall. Both Bush and Clinton had similiar negative ratings (34 percent and 36 percent, respectively), but while Bush, the brother and son of the former presidents, had just a 23 percent positive rating, Clinton, the wife of another former president, had a 44 percent positive rating.