Marquette Poll: Trump’s Lead Grows While Democrats Remain Neck And Neck

A new poll shows that while businessman Donald Trump’s lead has grown slightly among voters who say they’ll take part in Wisconsin’s Republican presidential primary, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are in a much tighter race on the Democratic side.

The Marquette University Law School poll conducted late last week puts Trump’s support at 30 percent among the Republican voters, marking a 4-point increase for the businessman and national frontrunner since January.

“The notion that (Trump’s) support would collapse at any point certainly has not been demonstrated in any of our data,” said Marquette pollster Charles Franklin on Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio trails Trump with 20 percent, followed by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz with 19 percent, and Gov. John Kasich and Doctor Ben Carson with 8 percent.

In the Democratic race, Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is polling at 44 percent, while former Secretary of State Clinton is polling at 43 percent.

However, when people were asked who they think the Democratic nominee will be this fall, Clinton had a 27-point lead over Sanders.

While Franklin said Clinton has some key advantages, especially “organizationally,” he also noted that Sanders has narrowed the likely-nominee gap by about 5 percent in the last month.

Among Republicans, the poll found that 46 percent of Republican primary voters say they believe Trump is most likely to be the GOP nominee this fall, followed by Cruz at 25 percent and Rubio at 11 percent.

The poll interviewed 802 voters across Wisconsin over landline phones last week. The margin of error in the Republican pool was plus or minus 7.5 points. In the Democratic pool, it’s plus or minus 6.9 points.