Donald Trump Leads In New Hampshire, Closing Gap In Iowa: Polls

Donald Trump is running strong in Iowa and is atop the bloated field of GOP presidential hopefuls in New Hampshire, according to two new polls, despite remaining unpopular among large segments of potential Republican voters and even more so among party leaders.

In Iowa, Trump is favored by 17 percent of potential Republican voters, according to two new NBC News-Marist polls. That’s within 2 percentage points of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, favored by 19 percent.

They’re followed by Jeb Bush at 12 percent, Ben Carson at 8 percent, Mike Huckabee at 7 percent and Rand Paul at 5 percent.

• Read the full Iowa poll here.

Earlier this month The Des Moines Register published an editorial that echoed the criticism GOP leaders have directed at Trump, calling for him to drop out of the race under the headline, “Trump should pull the plug on his bloviating side show.”

“Trump has proven himself not only unfit to hold office, but unfit to stand on the same stage as his Republican opponents,” the paper said. For GOP leaders, a Trump surge has largely been seen as the party’s worst nightmare.

Trump, though, is not only running strong in Iowa, he’s doing even better in New Hampshire, leading the field with 24 percent of potential voters saying they would vote for him.

He’s followed by Jeb Bush at 14 percent, Scott Walker at 12 percent and John Kasich at 7 percent. Chris Christie and Ben Carson are tied at 6 percent, and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are tied at 5 percent each.

Trump’s surge has been all the more unexpected because large numbers of Republicans simply don’t like him. His favorable/unfavorable rating among Iowa Republicans is just 45 percent/44 percent, and it’s 39 percent/53 percent among GOP voters in New Hampshire.

“I think if you give any candidate a billion dollars in free advertising, he’s going to get his message out,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who many expected to capture the same grassroots constituency, said Sunday morning on Face the Nation.

• Read the full New Hampshire poll here.

The polls were conducted July 14-21 and suggest that the firestorm created when Trump belittled Sen. John McCain’s war record did not affect him in Iowa but did hurt him in New Hampshire.

The poll results for Hillary Clinton were mixed.

In Iowa, they show her leading Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa by 29 points — 55 percent to 26 percent — with Martin O’Malley at 4 percent and Jim Webb at 2 percent. In a February, the same poll in Iowa showed Sanders at just 7 percent.

In New Hampshire, Clinton is ahead of Sanders by 13 points — 47 percent to 34 percent. They’re followed by O’Malley at 5 percent and Lincoln Chafee at 2 percent. Sanders was at 13 percent in February.