2016 Presidential Poll Results: Carson Gains Ground On Trump, Leads Clinton Head to Head

Impact

It's a close race between business tycoon Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson for the position of front-running Republican presidential candidate. Per a Quinnipiac University survey, 24% of responders said they'd vote for Trump, compared to 23% who said they'd vote for Carson. Bear in mind that a separate national poll from NBC/WSJ out Tuesday put Carson in the lead, polling at 29% to Trump's 23%.

Though Quinnipiac University's survey, which comes one year before 2016's Election Day, claims the race between Trump and Carson is neck-and-neck, the findings also suggest that Trump's still got work to do to win voters' support. According to the University survey, 25% of Republican voters said they "would definitely not support Trump." 

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Trailing Trump and Carson, the Quinnipiac University National Poll puts Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 14%, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 13% and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush at 4%. The remaining Republican candidates all polled below 3%, while 63% of responders to the survey claimed they may still pivot on who to support. 

As for the democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pulling a strong lead ahead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, per the findings. Of Democratic voters who responded to the survey, 53% said they'd vote for Clinton versus 35% who said they'd vote for Sanders. 

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Though that's good news for Clinton among Democratic voters, the former Secretary of State didn't fair as well when compared to the real competition: the republicans. Per the poll, 50% of responders would vote for Carson over Clinton.

"Is there a doctor in the house? There certainly is and at the moment Dr. Ben Carson is delivering a troubling diagnosis to Secretary Hillary Clinton," said the Quinnipiac University Poll's assistant director, Tim Malloy, per the release. "With the election one year away, Ben Carson has surgically cut away all but one GOP opponent and taken a scalpel to Hillary Clinton's lead."

"But a year is an eternity in presidential campaigns and this race already has left some former front-runners on life support," Malloy added. "Clinton gets crushed on character issues, pounded by Carson and closely challenged by Sen. Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio." 

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