A new Marquette Law School poll shows Ted Cruz jumping out to a 10-point lead over Donald Trump—40 percent to 30 percent—with John Kasich far behind in third place at 21 percent.
While Cruz and Kasich have doubled their share of support since February, Trump hasn't gained a single percentage point. The last Marquette poll, which was conducted around the time of the South Carolina GOP primary, showed Trump in first place at 30 percent, followed by Marco Rubio at 20 percent and Cruz at 19 percent, with Kasich and Ben Carson at 8 percent each.
In other words, Trump's victories in other states haven't given him any momentum heading into Wisconsin, a promising sign for those who oppose Trump. Wisconsin is one of the key Midwestern states that could block Trump's path to the nomination.
The new poll, conducted entirely before Wisconsin governor Scott Walker endorsed Cruz on Tuesday morning, suggests that Trump's new attacks on Walker could backfire: 80 percent of GOP primary voters approve of Walker's job performance. Those voters already backed Cruz over Trump 45 percent to 27 percent.
The poll also shows that Hillary Clinton is deeply unpopular among general election voters: Only 35 percent of registered voters have a favorable view of Clinton and 59 percent have an unfavorable view of her. But Clinton still manages to trounce the even more unpopular Trump by double digits in a head-to-head matchup. Clinton is tied with Cruz and loses to Kasich:
Specific head to heads among registered voters: Kasich 48%, Clinton 39%; Clinton 44%, Cruz 44%; and Clinton 47%, Trump 37%. #mulawpoll
— MULawPoll (@MULawPoll)
March 30, 2016
A poll released last week by the Washington Free Beacon found that 38 percent of Trump's supporters would switch their vote to Cruz if they "became convinced that Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton and that Ted Cruz had a good chance to defeat Hillary Clinton." The Marquette poll showing Clinton clobbering Trump but running a close race with Cruz is consistent with recent national polls.