Poll: Fiorina surges to second, Trump down
After last week's Republican presidential debate, former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina has risen to second place, while Donald Trump's support has softened, according to a new national poll by CNN/ORC.
The survey, released Sunday morning, shows Trump still dominating the GOP field with 24 percent of support among registered Republican and independents who lean Republican -- though that number has dropped 8 percentage points from a poll conducted in early September.
Fiorina replaced retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson for second place nationally, gathering 15 percent of Republican support. Carson trails closely behind her with 14 percent, a drop from the 19 percent of support he garnered in the previous poll. That makes the top three GOP contenders for the White House people who have never held public office, a trend reflected in last week's CBS News poll showing American voters' unfavorable views of Washington and career politicians.
CNN attributes Fiorina's rise to her debate performance, where the former tech executive went head-to-head with Trump over comments about her appearance -- and came out looking more even-tempered than her GOP rival.
For those candidates who have held public office, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio rose with the highest percentage in the poll. Rubio finished in fourth place with 11 percent -- up from three percent in a previous survey.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came in with 9 percent support, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee both polling at 6 percent.
All other candidates polled at less than five percentage points, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker showing the most precipitous drop. Walker's support fell to below one percent, dropping down from 5 percent in a previous poll.
The CNN/ORC poll was conducted between Sept. 17 and Sept. 19.