An overnight poll taken in the wake of Thursday's bombastic GOP debates on Fox News shows the big winners seem to be Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump.
NBC News reports:
Donald Trump has the support of 23% of Republican primary voters following the debate, which had the highest viewership ever for a primary debate, with 24 million watchers. The poll was in the field for only a 24-hour period, during which Mr. Trump continued to make more headlines for his comments about Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly, which got him disinvited from speaking at a gathering of conservatives in Atlanta.
Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina were the candidates with the most gains in support, 7 points and 6 points respectively, but there was no real change among most candidates given an error estimate of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Among Trump supporters, a majority – 54% – said they would vote for him for president as an independent candidate, even if he does not win the Republican nomination.
Here's where the GOP stands according to the poll:
- Donald Trump (23%)
- Ted Cruz (13%)
- Ben Carson (11%)
- Carly Fiorina (8%)
- Marco Rubio (8%)
- Jeb Bush (7%)
- Scott Walker (7%)
- Rand Paul (5%)
- Mike Huckabee (5%)
- Rick Perry (2%)
- John Kasich (2%)
- Chris Christie (1%)
- Lindsey Graham (1%)
- Bobby Jindal (1%)
- Rick Santorum (0%)
- George Pataki (0%)
More on the poll here.