South Carolina Race Very Close As Cruz Catches Trump

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks to supporters on primary election night, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Hollis, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks to supporters on primary election night, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Hollis, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks to supporters on primary election night, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Hollis, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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An Internal poll for the Jeb Bush supporting Super PAC Right to Rise shows Donald Trump is in first place, with a narrow 26 percent to 24 percent lead over Ted Cruz:

  • Trump – 26%
  • Cruz – 24%
  • Bush – 12%
  • Rubio – 11%

According to Politico’s Alex Isenstadt, the poll of 500 likely primary voters was conducted Thursday through Saturday. You should always take reports of internal polls with a grain of salt. That is especially true here where the Real Clear Politics Average for the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary shows Trump leading by 20 points:

  • Trump – 37%
  • Cruz – 17%
  • Rubio – 11%
  • Kasich – 10.5%
  • Bush – 10%
  • Carson 4.5%

The Right to Rise poll was revealed in a polling memo to Mike Murphy the head of the super PAC. The memo was written by South Carolina Republican strategist Richard Quinn. According to Quinn, who led John McCain’s infamously brutal 2000 South Carolina primary campaign against George W. Bush, the race is tight:

This is clearly a tight, volatile race that could produce most any result over the next six days.

Howard Kurtz, who first reported the Right to Rise poll, tweeted that the Cruz jump is “based on significant support” in upstate S.C. “where evangelical Christians are heavily concentrated.”

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