Trump dominates Republican race as primaries loom

39% of GOP voters back billionaire, but 50% say party more likely to win White House with another candidate

As 2015 draws to a close, American billionaire Donald Trump has emerged as a clear front-runner in the Republican presidential race, a new poll published Wednesday shows.

Trump enjoys the support of 39 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, more than twice the number of people who support Ted Cruz, at second place with 18%. He has been leading in polls in the past, but the gap from second place has never been wider.

Ted Cruz, trailing far behind Trump with less than half the support Trump received in the survey, emerged for the first time as an unequivocal second choice for voters, leading by 8 percentage points over the third and fourth places.

Trailing behind Cruz, Ben Carson and Florida Senator Marco Rubio received 10% each, the poll published by CNN found.

A Quinnipiac University poll from Tuesday found Cruz and Trump closer, with Trump overtaking Cruz by less than 10 points. Trump’s average lead, from 10 polls analyzed by CNN including its own, is 16%.

The CNN poll was taken after the GOP debate in Las Vegas held on December 15.

When asked about individual issues, Trump beat other candidates handily.

Asked who would best handle the US economy, Trump leads among 57%, compared with Cruz at 8%, Rubio at 7%, Carson at 6% and Jeb Bush at 5%.

Asked about illegal immigration, Trump’s wins 55%, followed by Cruz at 15% and Rubio at 10%.

When it comes to handling the Islamic State jihadist group, 47% of those polled believe Trump is the man for the job, compared with 21% supporting Cruz, 7% supporting Bush and 6% supporting Chris Christie.

And when it comes to which GOP candidate would be most likely to win the presidency for the party, 46% said Trump is the party’s best shot, but 50% said the party would fare better with another candidate.

The poll included interviews with 1,018 adult Americans conducted by telephone by ORC International on December 17-21, 2015. The margin of sampling error was stated as +/- 3%. Among the respondents, 927 were registered voters.