AP Photo Trump maintains lead in Fox News poll

Donald Trump is holding onto his sizeable lead among Republican primary voters, a Fox News poll showed Wednesday, despite being perceived as delivering the worst performance in last week's debate.

The poll has the billionaire businessman nabbing 26 percent support, with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson gaining on him with 18 percent, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina also edging up with 9 percent.


The trio of political outsiders all improved their standing from the prior Fox News poll conducted after the Aug. 6 debate, in which Trump came in with 25 percent, Carson with 12, and Fiorina with 5 percent.

The strong numbers show the extent to which anti-Washington sentiment has boosted those who have never before held political office, while experienced hands such as Jeb Bush have sunk to single-digit support. Trump maintained his post at the top despite respondents saying he offered up the worst performance at last week's CNN Republican presidential debate. Fiorina, meanwhile, landed the best impression.

On the Democratic side, support for Vice President Joe Biden has nearly doubled from August, despite the fact that he has not yet decided whether to mount a run. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, who has stumbled through a drawn-out scandal involving her exclusive use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state, again slipped, showing 44 percent support, compared to 49 percent last month.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, who experienced his own surge this summer, is holding steady at 30 percent among Democratic primary voters.

The poll was conducted on Sept. 20-22 via live telephone interviews with a random national sample of 1,013 registered voters. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.