Politics

Donald Trump remains the most popular — and least popular — Republican candidate in New Hampshire

Donald Trump at a rally Monday in South Carolina. Mic Smith / AP

In New Hampshire, Donald Trump is the candidate most Republican voters say they would vote for. He is also the candidate most Republican voters say they would not vote for.

According to a CNN/WMUR poll released Tuesday, 32 percent of likely GOP primary voters say they would vote for Trump, nearly doubling his lead in the Granite State since the last CNN/WMUR poll in September.

Conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center from November 30 to December 7, the poll found that 14 percent of voters would vote for Marco Rubio, followed by 9 percent for Chris Christie, 8 percent for Jeb Bush, 7 percent for John Kasich, 6 percent for Ted Cruz, and 5 percent for both Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson.

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On the heels of his calls to ban Muslims from coming to the United States, Trump’s lead persists despite the fact that he is also the candidate most Republican voters say they would not vote for.

Twenty-six percent of respondents said Trump was the candidate they would not vote “for under any circumstances,’’ compared to 11 percent for Bush and 7 percent for Rand Paul. Trump has remained the candidate most GOP voters say they would not vote for since CNN/WMUR began polling him on the issue back in January 2014.

Desipte Trump’s divisiveness, 59 percent of Republican voters said they thought he was the most likely to win the party’s presidential nomination. No other candidate got more than 6 percent.

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Additionally, 34 percent of Republicans said Trump had the best chance to win the general election in November, followed by 17 percent who said Rubio had the best chance.

The poll also found foreign policy/national security has by far become the most important issue to Republican voters — a major shift since September. Half of those surveyed said foreign policy/national security was the most important issue in the presidential election, up from just 21 percent who said so in the last poll. In September, most voters (29 percent) said jobs/economy was the most important issue, but that number was down to 18 percent in Tuesday’s results.

The 2016 candidates for president

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