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BOSTON — Donald J. Trump is the clear favorite among likely Republican voters in the Massachusetts primary on Tuesday, according to a poll released on Saturday by Suffolk University.

Mr. Trump captures 43 percent of the vote, one of his best showings in any state, with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, his increasingly vocal antagonist, coming in a distant second with 20 percent, the poll found.

Gov. John Kasich of Ohio comes in third, with 17 percent, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas at 9 percent.

When asked to put aside their own preferences and predict who would be the next president, even more voters named Mr. Trump — almost 50 percent. That was way ahead of anyone else; Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, was the only other person who registered in double digits, but she lagged far behind Mr. Trump, with 18 percent predicting she would be president.

Mr. Trump has visited Massachusetts several times and has drawn thousands of people to big boisterous rallies here.

David Paleologos, who conducted the Suffolk survey, said that Mr. Trump always polled better in Massachusetts than the other Republicans in part because the state does not cotton to religious candidates. And Mr. Paleologos noted only half-jokingly that Mr. Trump had been outspoken in his support of the Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, a virtual god here, during the scandal over deflated footballs, and that may have caught the attention of some voters.

But mostly, he said, Mr. Trump seemed to be doing well here because the other candidates are splitting the anti-Trump vote.

“People talk about Trump’s ego,” Mr. Paleologos said. “But it’s the egos of these other candidates who are still in the race that are keeping Trump alive.”

The poll, conducted Wednesday through Friday, questioned 500 likely Republican primary voters and has a margin of sampling error rate of plus or minus four percentage points.