Trump, Clinton lead in new Nevada poll

John Locher / AP

Businessman Donald Trump leads the Republican field in the Silver State, according to a new poll of likely GOP caucusgoers conducted by Gravis Marketing.

A total of 33 percent of respondents said that they would back Trump, who was followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 20 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 11 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6 percent and businesswoman Carly Fiorina, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie each at 5 percent.

No other Republican scored more than a point.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a large lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, at 50 percent to 27 percent, with former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley at 1 percent.

In the race to replace retiring Sen. Harry Reid, Republican Congressman Joe Heck is off to an early lead, outpolling former Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, by a 47 percent to 37 percent margin.

Also in the poll, Gov. Brian Sandoval received a 52 percent approval rating, and 51 percent of respondents said Nevada should not accept Syrian refugees.

The poll was conducted from Dec. 23 to 27 and contacted 909 likely voters.

It had a margin of plus or minus 3.5 percent, which means that 19 out of 20 times conducted under identical circumstances, the observed values would fall within 3.5 percentage points of the reported results.