Carly Fiorina's poor showing comes a day after she finished in sixth place with 7 percent in a similar poll. | AP Photo Fiorina's support collapses, Trump leads in CNN poll

Carly Fiorina's time near the top of the Republican polls may have come to an end, as another national CNN/ORC poll out Tuesday suggests. Just 4 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning voters said they would cast their votes for her in a primary election, down from 15 percent in September.

Overall, Donald Trump led the field with 27 percent, followed again by Ben Carson with 22 percent, up 8 points from last month's survey. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio each earned 8 percent, followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 5 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Fiorina pulled in 4 percent, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich earned 3 percent, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 2 percent and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham 1 percent.


Appearing later in the morning on CNN's "New Day," Trump commented that he and Carson have both "hit a chord" in the electorate.

On whether the two could team up as a presidential ticket, Trump remarked, "Well, I like him. He likes me. Stranger things have happened, that I can tell you. But it’s too early to think about that."

Responding to Fiorina's drop, Trump expressed surprise that the former Hewlett-Packard executive fell by so much so quickly.

The poll helped to solidify spots in next week’s CNBC debate for a number of candidates who were on the bubble. Huckabee, Paul, Christie and Kasich are all now at 3 percent or above in an average of qualifying public polls since the previous debate, giving them some cushion above the 2.5 percent threshold to participate in the main debate.

And the survey appears to mean that Graham — who has been at zero percent in each of the first seven polls — has earned a ticket to the undercard debate, where he will join Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former New York Gov. George Pataki. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (zero percent) still has failed to qualify.

Fiorina's poor showing comes a day after she finished in sixth place with 7 percent in a similar NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of national Republicans.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted Oct. 14-17 via landlines and cellphones, surveying 465 registered Republican voters and independent voters who lead Republican. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.