AP Photo Poll: Kasich sees boost but Trump still dominates GOP field

John Kasich’s support has ticked up 4 percent nationally in the past week, according to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday.

The Ohio governor’s increase in support among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters is the largest gain of any GOP presidential candidate and follows a home-state victory in Ohio last week.


Donald Trump remains the front-runner, commanding 45 percent support, followed by Ted Cruz at 24 percent and Kasich at 16 percent with 8 percent undecided.

Support for Trump and Cruz is largely unchanged, despite the dwindling field. Following a blowout loss to Trump in Florida, Marco Rubio bowed out of the race, and his support appears to have shifted to Kasich. Rubio’s campaign had urged the Florida senator’s supporters to back Kasich in Ohio in a plea to deny Trump from securing the GOP nomination outright by accruing the necessary 1,237 delegates.

But voters view the real-estate mogul as increasingly likely to win the nomination. Nearly 80 percent — a 4-point burst from last week — believe he will represent the GOP in the general election.

Hillary Clinton swept Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries on March 15, decisively winning Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. Clinton edged the Vermont senator by 2 percentage points in Illinois and 0.2 percentage points in Missouri.

The former secretary of state has 53 percent support nationally among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters. Sanders, meanwhile, has 41 percent support with 6 percent still undecided.

While the Democratic presidential candidates’ support is virtually unchanged from last week, Clinton has seen a 7-point surge among those who believe she will ultimately win the Democratic nomination — nearly 80 percent say Clinton will represent the Democratic Party in the general election. She leads Sanders in that category by more than 60 percentage points.

Young voters — under 30 — are much more optimistic that Sanders can win the nomination. Roughly four-in-10 likely Democratic voters under 30 say he can, while just 13 percent of those 30 and up see Sanders toppling Clinton to win the nomination.

The online poll surveyed more than 13,000 adults March 14-20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points among registered Republican voters and plus or minus 2.2 percent among registered Democratic voters.