Republican insiders praise Donald Trump's performance in the second presidential debate, and are hopeful that he can use the momentum to improve his position.

Politico polled activists, operatives and strategists from both parties in battleground states after the debate. They found that three in four Republicans thought Trump gave the better performance, while over 90 percent of Democrats favored Hillary Clinton.

The results:

Republicans Clinton: 25 percent;

Republicans Trump: 75 percent;

Democrats Clinton: 92 percent;

Democrats Trump: 8 percent.

"I'm shocked, but he won the debate," said one Iowa Republican who anonymously took the survey, as did the other participants. "He had her on her heels throughout."

"Donald Trump did what he had to do," a Michigan Republican told Politico. "He laid out a Chris Christie, New Hampshire-style indictment of Hillary Clinton in the first 30 minutes when the most eyeballs were watching and before the early deadline for Monday's newspapers."

But some, while praising his performance, still doubted his chances in November.

"Hillary took this debate for granted," an Ohio Republican added. "Trump was far more effective. But his performance will not move any voters in his favor. His ceiling and his floor is now around the same number. He cannot win."

"He is still standing — he will still lose, but not tonight," a New Hampshire Republican said. "She continues to underwhelm."

"After a disastrous couple of weeks, Trump had to knock it out of the park," one Colorado Republican said. "While he probably stopped the bleeding with the base, he didn't pick up any new votes."

Democrats agreed that while Trump improved since the first debate with Clinton, he focused on speaking to his base and not on picking up support in other demographics.

"Trump is only talking to his base," an Iowa Democrat said. "He's not gaining voters. Clinton is."

Among political commentators, Trump won over conservatives, but not liberals.

"She had a chance to throw a knockout punch at Donald Trump and instead looked more at times like Glass Joe from Nintendo's Punch-Out," said RedState's Jay Caruso. "I lost count how many times she said to go to her website or whine about the lack of "fact checking" as the debate went on. Trump had her on the ropes several times."

Others took to Twitter:

All the Republicans who backed away from @realDonaldTrump look really really stupid right now. — Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 10, 2016

I may not care for Trump, but he beat Hillary tonight fair and square even with Martha Raddatz trying to defeat him. — Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) October 10, 2016