Donald Trump is building an extensive lead in New Hampshire, with almost one-third of Republicans supporting him there, according to a Monmouth University poll released Monday.
Trump won 32% support among New Hampshire Republicans, an increase of 6 percentage points from the last Monmouth poll there, taken in November. The latest result — which puts him nearly 20 percentage points ahead of the next-closest rivals — is consistent with other polls after the New Year, including an NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday that found him with 30% support.
“As Granite State voters start to firm up their decision, it’s looking more and more unlikely that Trump will be toppled from his perch. The real fight is for second place,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Trump’s strong standing comes as he’s fighting against Ted Cruz for the top spot in Iowa, which holds its caucuses on February 1, one week before the New Hampshire primary. Trump has kept up his “birther” attacks on Cruz’s status as a U.S. citizen, but Cruz, who has born in Canada, has said that he is a natural-born citizen, because his mother was born in Delaware.
The nearest contenders to Trump in New Hampshire are Cruz and John Kasich, who both garnered 14% support, followed by Marco Rubio with 12% and Chris Christie at 8%, according to Monmouth. Jeb Bush won 4% support.
Monmouth polled 414 voters between January 7-10 and the results carry a +/- 4.8 percent margin of error.