Cruz Closes the Gap on Trump

A new Morning Consult national poll finds that Sen. Ted Cruz is gaining on the bombastic billionaire Donald Trump:

Cruz picked up eight percentage points to pull within 17 points of Trump. It’s a 12-point swing from Morning Consult’s previous poll after Trump dropped four percentage points.

Sen. Marco Rubio stayed in third place at 14 percent, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich doubled his support from the previous poll, conducted February 26-27, with 10 percent of voters’ support:

Donald Trump – 40%

Ted Cruz – 23%

Marco Rubio – 14%

John Kasich – 10%

Someone Else – 5%

The poll, also finds that Mitt Romney’s speech last week condemning Trump had very little impact — only five percent of Trump supporters said they are now less likely to vote for Trump. More interestingly, of those who voted for Romney in 2012, 30 percent said they were more likely to vote for Trump, compared to 20 percent who said less likely. Nearly half (48 percent) said it wouldn’t affect their vote either way.

The Morning Consult poll was conducted between March 4 – March 6, 2016 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.