More than half of Republican voters like Jeb Bush less as they hear more about him, according to a new poll. | Getty Poll: The more that GOP voters hear about Bush, the less they like him

The more that Republican voters hear about Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, the more they like them. Jeb Bush, not so much.

A new McClatchy-Marist poll conducted from Oct. 29 through Nov. 4 found that Carson has the most appeal as voters are more exposed to him, with 67 percent expressing that favorable view, and 20 percent saying they have a less favorable view the more they hear about the retired neurosurgeon. Rubio comes in second at 58 percent to 27 percent, followed by Cruz with 51 percent to 31 percent.


But the news isn’t as good for Bush, who has been attempting a reset from flagging poll numbers and a series of underwhelming debate performances. For the former Florida governor, 58 percent of Republican voters like him less after hearing more about him, compared with 32 percent who like him more.

And while Donald Trump is in second place in the overall Republican poll, nearly half of voters say they like him less the more they hear about him (49 percent to 44 percent).

Carson continues his hold on the No. 1 spot of the survey of Republican voters, with 24 percent, but he’s just 1 percentage point ahead of Trump, well within the margin of error. Rubio comes in third at 12 percent, and Cruz and Bush are tied for fourth with 8 percent each. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is in fifth place with 5 percent. All other candidates are at 4 percent or lower.

The McClatchy-Marist poll also found that a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents — 59 percent to 39 percent — say it’s more important to have a candidate who stands for conservative principles than one who can win.

That number has dipped slightly since July, when 62 percent felt it was more important to have a candidate who maintained conservative ideals, while 35 percent saw electability as more important. The all-time high came in December 2013, when 67 percent were more focused on conservative principles, 31 percent saw someone who could win as most important.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, beats all candidates in hypothetical general election matchups, according to the poll, though she was just 2 percentage points ahead of Carson, 50 percent to 48 percent.

Bernie Sanders beat all candidates in general election matchups except Carson, who came out ahead of him 47 percent to 45 percent.

For the 431 Republican and Republican-leaning voters who were surveyed, the margin of error was plus or minus 4.7 percentage points. The general election match-up questions were conducted among split samples of around 540 voters and carry margins of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.