All you fans of dynastic politics can take heart. Her Royal Highness Hillary Clinton might be down in New Hampshire but Duke Jeb Bush has surged into second place in the Granite State, according to an Emerson College poll.
The poll showed support for Trump at 35 percent of likely Republican voters, a 17-point lead over Bush, who came second with 18 percent. The only other candidate with a double-digit showing was Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R). Although this is Emerson’s first poll of New Hampshire voters in the 2016 cycle, Trump’s standing is consistent with virtually all other polling of the state.
The ECPS poll shows an unusually strong result for Bush, who has generally been stuck in the middle of the pack in low single-digits. No other New Hampshire polls have shown Bush polling in second place. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Kasich have all held this position in various polls.
The ECPS poll was conducted from Jan. 25-26 and interviewed 373 likely Republican voters by automated phone survey, with a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
Before we all take out our short swords and commit hari-kari over the prospect that Jeb Bush won’t slink away in shame after he is buried in New Hampshire, I would simply point out there is no other poll from any other state in the past month that shows any movement at all for Bush. In fact, many polls have shown him losing support.
Since this is the first poll Emerson has released this cycle, there is no previous poll we can compare Bush’s support to. Every other poll in the last two weeks in the state has Bush in mid to high single digits.
Either New Hampshirites woke up one morning recently and realized what a great thing they were missing by not supporting Jeb Bush for president, or this particular survey only polled Republicans in favor of establishing a monarchy. Something is really, really screwy in this poll.
But since the supporters of dynastic politics have had so little to smile about lately, I thought I’d cheer them up a bit.
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