WASHINGTON – Real estate magnate Donald Trump and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lead the Republican 2012 field, according to a nationwide survey of Republican voters released Tuesday.
According to the CNN/Opinion Research poll, the two men – both of whom are publicly mulling bids for the White House but have made few preparations in terms of campaign infrastructure and travel to key early states – top the poll with 19 percent support apiece.
While Huckabee retained the same level of support in the poll a month earlier, Trump jumped nine percentage points.
Sarah Palin took third place with 12 percent, the same amount of support as in the March poll.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who announced the launch of his presidential exploratory committee Monday, was tied in fourth place with 11 percent alongside former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul (7 percent), Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (5 percent), Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (3 percent), former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (2 percent) and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (2 percent) rounded out the field.
Despite Trump’s meteoric rise in the polls – he received 17 percent among Republicans in a recent NBC / Wall Street journal poll — many in the survey opposed his potential entrance into the race.
“More than four in ten Republicans say they would not like to see Trump toss his hat in the ring,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
“Are Republicans switching from Romney to Trump? Some are, but it’s a lot more complicated than that, as you would expect with 11 potential hats in the ring,” Holland said. “Only one in five Trump supporters say that Romney would be their second choice. It looks like Trump pulls as much support from Gingrich and Palin as from Romney, and Romney’s support would go down even if Trump were not in the list of potential candidates.”
The poll was conducted two days before Romney, the prohibitive frontrunner, formally launched his presidential exploratory committee with a two-minute video in which he speaks to the camera front of a New Hampshire football field.
In addition, the new poll came out after it emerged that Huckabee and Trump held a private meeting last week to discuss their relative futures.
“We just had a very honest and open conversation about the process of running,” Huckabee said on Barbara Walters’ new SiriusXM radio show. “It was kind of like two dogs sniffing around a fire hydrant together,” he added.