Posted on 04/20/2015 10:24:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The new front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
He takes the top slot on The Chase – U.S. News' Run 2016 rankings of the four candidates most likely to end up as his or her party's nominee – for the first time, after establishing polling leads in each of the three early nominating states.
Jeb Bush has held the top slot since the beginning of the year, and the former Florida governor remains the first choice of national Republicans, according to a new CNN survey released Monday.
But the race for the nomination starts in early states, and that's where Walker is thriving and Bush has stalled.
Walker is ahead in Iowa, potentially by double-digits if a Quinnipiac University survey is to be believed. He's ahead in New Hampshire, where just this weekend he was the featured Saturday evening dinner speaker at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit. Even in South Carolina, where polling has been sparse, Walker has resonated. A Winthrop University survey placed him just ahead of Bush, in a state whose senior senator is seriously contemplating a bid.
Once Walker landed a powerful speech in Iowa back in January, the question was whether he could maintain his momentum among activists and party regulars.
As others have formalized their candidacies and the calendar has turned to spring, it's only appeared to have grown.
So it's Walker at the top of the pack, followed by Bush and then two first-term senators who are official candidates – Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Given his early fundraising run, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz makes a strong case to be included in the top tier at this time. But public polling still shows him lagging behind other rivals, despite an aggressive early state travel schedule.
Interesting interactive graphic on number of candidate trips to NH from Jan 1, 2013 to date.... more
pretty good for a guy who’d not even a candidate!
Please stop selling the “Bush is the choice of (fill in the blank)” bull snot. I have never ever seen less enthusiasm for a candidate in my lifetime. Rather, what I am seeing is a very few elites running around like madmen trying to rig the campaign to make sure Jeb gets in as the nominee.
Public Policy Polling's newest survey of the Republican primary for President in New Hampshire finds Scott Walker in a tier by himself-24% of voters say Walker is their top choice to
14% for Ted Cruz,
12% for Rand Paul,
10% for Jeb Bush
While I like some better than others, it seems to me that just about any of the prospective candidates with a serious chance at winning the nomination would be better than Bush. (I’m not counting Christie or Paul as candidates with a serious chance, at least for now).
So far it seems it will be Rubio who will make things dicey for Cruz and Walker.
It's early, we shall see. Lots of strange things will happen along the way.
Gov. Scott Walker leads the pack with 25 percent...13 percent for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky,
11 percent each for Michigan physician Ben Carson
and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
10 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Thanks for posting this breakdown.
You are correct Sir.
How interesting!
Sen.Ted Cruz (R-TX) isn’t mentioned here, yet he has declared.
Jebbie is looking more and more like a cheap inflatable boat that leaks more and more as more and more air gets pumped into it. It’s just that here it’s GOPe money instead of air.
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when you consider how the votes for the other candidates will move over, Walker - or any other conservative that emerges - is well in the lead, and has been for a while.
Walker, Cruz, or Rubio would be strong choices, imho. Walker is my top choice, but Cruz would be a fabulous candidate, and I think Rubio might prove to be a formidable candidate. I think the GOP has been burned out by the Bushes. George HW, George W, and Jeb Bush are very likeable men, but entirely too pragmatic and accommodating to the left.
13.6 Scott WalkerThe big news out of this is that Jeb is not getting any traction. I don't know how much love billions of dollars can buy.12.7 Jeb Bush
8.1 Ted Cruz
7.6 Lindsey Graham
6.2 Rand Paul
4.0 Marco Rubio
Bush must be defeated and he must be defeated NOW.
He is still forming an exploratory committee, so he hasn’t officially decided.
1. Bush has a lot of money at his disposal. If he runs, he is going to convince the squishy middle that the rest of the GOP field is not good. This hurts us even if Bush loses the primary election.
2. Hillary Clinton has no real opposition. This frees up liberals to register as republicans for the primaries and taint the GOP selection. Out of all the GOP candidates, Bush is the ONLY one who is palatable to liberals.
3. There are a lot of open primary states. Again, liberals will vote in the GOP primary and will pick Bush.
Rubio is with Jeb and Christie on my “will not vote for under any circumstances whatsoever” list.
He has been promising La Raza open borders since he launched his first campaign. I am suspicious of anyone who would even consent to address one of their events. But hey, I have no use for the Aryan Nation either, so it isn’t just Hispanic supremacist groups I object to.
You can have whatever standards (or lack of standards) you want though.
Prepare for FoxNews to make a blatant effort to denigrate Walker and promote Bush.
I am aware of this - good to mention.
bttt
>>Walker, Cruz, or Rubio would be strong choices, imho. Walker is my top choice, but Cruz would be a fabulous candidate, and I think Rubio might prove to be a formidable candidate. <<
I thought the same of Rubio until I learned more of what was in that Gang of Eight immigration bill recently. And I’m not talking about the amnesty issue. The bill was another 1000 page monstrosity that got into considerable detail about wages for various occupations, etc. If Rubio thinks that’s the way to scale back government, he’s either just flat out wrong, or he hasn’t had enough experience cutting back government yet. Either way, it’s not wise to trust him with the Presidency yet.
I do think Paul will surprise a lot of people, and will also significantly broaden the appeal of the GOP if he gains traction. He could cut into Cruz’s potential vote considerably, I suspect.
Walker looks to be very well positioned, and he’s been so thoroughly vetted at the state level that it’s going to be hard to bring him down with a scandal of any sort; it will take some missteps of his own making.
Personally, I’d like to see a Walker/Cruz or maybe even a Walker/Paul ticket with the VP taking over in eight years after Walker has cut the Left’s gravy train, taxpayer dollars. Either one, with some seasoning, could finish the job of cutting the government down to size while diminishing the Left’s power across the board.
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