Romney Leads GOP Pack In Yet Another Poll
A new Fox News Poll continues the trend showing Mitt Romney leading the field of prospective 2016 candidates:
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remain the front-runners for their respective party’s presidential nominations. In addition, Romney performs best against Clinton among the Republicans tested in hypothetical head-to-head matchups, coming out dead even.
That’s according to the latest Fox News poll, released Thursday.
In the quest for the GOP nomination, Romney leads with 21 percent among self-identified Republicans. He’s followed by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee each at 11 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent.
Then the single-digit tier: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson earns nine percent support, followed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at eight percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at five percent.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry each get four percent. All others come in at two percent or less.
Romney (20 percent) is the top choice among voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement, followed by Carson (13 percent), and Paul and Walker (9 percent each).
White evangelical Christians are also most likely to back Romney (15 percent), with Huckabee (13 percent), Bush and Paul (10 percent each) close behind.
As with previous polling, much of this can likely be attributed to name recognition and the fact that Republican voters are likely far more familiar with Mitt Romney than they are with any other potential candidate at this point in the race. Nonetheless, it seems to be yet another piece of evidence in favor of the idea that a third Romney run for the Republican nomination isn’t quite as outlandish an idea as it seemed when we were discussing it for much of 2014. Granted, Romney is not going to have the support of the hardcore Tea Party base of the GOP, but he wasn’t exactly their top choice in 2012 either and, thanks in no small part to a the fact that the support of this part of the GOP was divided among a number of candidates while he had managed to lock up the support of the establishment and business wing of the party.
All of this comes amid news that Romney will be speaking this morning with supporters and may reveal more about this intentions:
Mitt Romney plans to provide an “update” on his intentions about a third bid for the White House, according to multiple reports Friday morning.
Supporters of the 2012 Republican presidential nominee received an email late Thursday to join a call Friday morning, led by Romney, for “an update,” Bloomberg Politics and CNN reported Friday.
Romney is ready to make a decision on a bid, Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin reported.
“According to people familiar with the thinking of the two-time presidential candidate, Romney has now gathered all the information he needs to reach a conclusion about whether to run a third time,” Halperin reported.
So, stay tuned I suppose.
That tells me that Tea Party people don’t especially like the current field but they recognize that Romney is still the best that the GOP has to offer.
Ben Carson? He seems a non-politician version of Michelle Bachmann to me. He often says stupid-but-acceptable-to-base-conservatives stuff as in, saying that liberals want to institute Nazi Germany here in America. That said, I hope he gets to 25% support in polling.
Scott Walker? He is a true serious dark horse possibility – he could win. He’s anti union (except for police unions) he won re-election despite serious opposition , and he want to cut back the public sector. The Koch’s will bankroll him as long as he’s viable, and unless he’s a stiff on the campaign trail I believe he has a 50/50 chance. Why not?
In hindsight, with Romney announcing that he will not run, this shows how the GOP is in disarray for 2016.
At least now.
Still, it must make that 21% feel quite slighted.
Unless can somehow find a realistic pathway for the Republicans to get to 270 electoral votes, who cares about the Republican Primary season? Worrying about how the Republicans nominate for president in 2016 is about as irrelevant as who ran for mayor as a Republican in DC, Chicago, SF, Los Angeles, etc.
When wonks, pundits, editors, etc finally admit that the Blue Wall has probably gone past 270 electoral votes, then the U.S. can have a real discussion on policy, governance, and elections instead of this insane idea of pretending that the Republicans are still relevant in presidential elections.