Although the next presidential election is still nearly two years away, an early field of Republican candidates is starting to fall into line and so far the leader of the pack is former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
Bush - who has said he’s “actively exploring” a presidential run - emerged the clear frontrunner in a recent CNN poll that saw him capturing 23 percent of support from Republicans surveyed in the nationwide poll.
Coming in No. 2 was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who garnered 13 percent, followed by physician Ben Carson in fourth with 7 percent support. Senator Rand Paul and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee tied for fourth place, with 6 percent.
Bush’s numbers are seen as impressive since it is the first time that any candidate has reached a lead beyond the margin of error during the past two years.
However, on issues that Bush doesn’t really connect with conservative voters on, it’s pretty split. On immigration reform, GOP primary voters are about evenly split on whether Bush’s support for permitting some illegal immigrants to stay in the United States makes them more or less likely to support him, or has no difference on their opinion of him.
The poll found that 42 percent said his description of illegal immigration as an “act of love” makes them less likely to support Bush, while 39 percent said it would make no difference to them. It also found that 40 percent of those surveyed said they were bothered by the fact that state government spending increased during Bush’s tenure as Florida governor, while 49 said it didn’t matter to them.
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