Trump Jumps To 39 Percent in Post Debate Fox Poll

Donald Trump has spiked his primary support to 39 percent among the 402 GOP primary voters reached in the latest Fox News poll, released Friday evening.

In mid-November, Trump was at 28 percent in a Fox poll. His December score of 39 percent is almost a 40-percent spike  in one month.

In the new December poll, Sen. Ted Cruz climbs 4 points to 18 percent, while Sen. Marco Rubio is down 3 points to 11 percent. Brain-surgeon Ben Carson crashed from 18 percent down to 9 percent. The poll was conducted after Tuesday’s GOP debate in Las Vegas.

Gov. Jeb Bush, once the hero of the establishment GOP, scored only 3 percent, equal to Gov. Chris Christie, CEO Carly Fiorina and Sen. Rand Paul. Bush was at 5 percent in Fox’s November poll.

However, Trump may be hitting his support ceiling, partly because his support among women and college-educated voters is much below his support among non-college voters. He’s got the support of 45 percent of non-college voters, reflecting his strong campaign opposition to the inflow of cheap illegal labor.

But that narrow base of support means that Trump only gained two points when the poll’s respondents were asked to pick from a four-man field of Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Carson.

That narrow set of choices left Trump with 41 percent, while Cruz jumped to 25 percent, Rubio climbed to 17 percent, and Carson only reached 12 percent.

Also, Trump has the most distance to reach Hillary Clinton’s support, according to Fox’s poll.

He now lags behind her, 38 percent to 49 percent.

In contrast, Cruz matches Clinton, 45 percent to 45 percent, while Rubio is a little ahead, at 45 percent to 43 percent.

One advantage that Rubio has over Trump is stronger support among younger voters, perhaps because of the demographic differences between young and old. “Clinton tops Trump by 29 points among those under 30, while Rubio bests her by 4 points,” notes Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll along with Anderson.

“For whatever reason, millennials are more resistant to Trump’s appeal,” said Fox.

The Fox News poll reached 1,013 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research, and Shaw & Company Research, on Dec. 16-17.