The race for the Republican presidential nomination went from circus to melee over the weekend.
The latest debate saw the candidates hurling insults at one another on stage in a truly epic (if absurd) verbal grudge match that at times appeared as though it might devolve into a fist fight. As Donald Trump acknowledged in an interview with CNN, the hopelessly contentious nature of the race threatens to weaken the GOP going into the national elections.
Of course Trump is right at home with controversy and offensive rhetoric. Cruz has proven to be quite adept at trading insults as well, but the mainstream candidates like Marco Rubio and especially Jeb Bush have been caught flat-footed. John Kasich has managed to gain a bit of momentum by casting himself as the only candidate running a positive campaign while Ben Carson is, well, asleep at the wheel.
With South Carolina just days away, the latest NBC poll shows Trump holding a commanding 20 point national lead. “With contests in two states completed, the most recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll finds some slight shifts in the national standings of the Republican candidates,” NBC writes. “This week's tracking poll finds Marco Rubio dropping 3 points and John Kasich rising 4 points to a two-month high of 7 points.”
The poll surveyed 13,139 Americans, more than 11,000 of which are registered voters.
As NBC goes on to point out, Trump faces a more evangelical and conservative set of voters in South Carolina. That could play into the hands of Jeb Bush and Trump’s main rival, Ted Cruz who the brazen billionaire has called “unstable.”
Still, Trump is sitting on a big advantage. According to a PPP poll conducted on Sunday and Monday (so, after the debate), Trump has a 17 point lead on Cruz and Rubio, who are tied for second with 18% each.
Here’s a look at how Trump is polling nationally among white evangelicals as well as two additional charts that break things down further.
Meanwhile, "The Bern" is closing the gap on Hillary among Democratic voters after the Vermont senator's big win in New Hampshire.
In South Carolina, Clinton holds a 55% to 34% lead headed into the primary.