Poll: Cruz Received Modest Bump from Presidential Announcement - Mediaite

According to a new CBS News poll, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) received a modest bump from his announcement last week that he was seeking the 2016 GOP nomination. Cruz skipped the “exploratory committee” stage of the process and announced last Monday at Liberty University, making him the first major GOP candidate to have officially declared for 2016.

Cruz had been polling at only 4-5% in the GOP field, behind more established names. The CBS News poll, however, measured differently, simply asking whether respondents would “consider” voting for the candidate. 37% said they would consider a Cruz vote, up 14 percentage points from the same poll in February. The percentage who would not stayed the same, which means Cruz only gained from his week of increased media scrutiny.

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It was enough to vaunt Cruz into the top five of the GOP field. However he trailed former Florida Governor Jeb Bush by double-digit margins, and even with the boost he still lagged behind Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-KY), neither of whom have made major public announcements about their campaigning futures.

Also of note: neurosurgeon headline-generator Ben Carson’s fortunes have declined somewhat in the last month, following several misstatements and less-than-glowing profiles.

[h/t CBS News]

[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com ]

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