Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is surging with the right kind of voter to dominate the South.
The latest NBC/SurveyMonkey poll found Trump leading the pack at 35 percent, ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 18 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 13 percent. The backbone of his support was solid backing among white evangelical voters – the bloc of voters that’s the beating heart of GOP primaries in Georgia, South Carolina and most of the region.
The poll found one-third of white evangelicals picked Trump, with Cruz following at about 20 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson held his own, with 12 percent of support in the bloc, and Rubio got about 10 percent. Voters who described themselves as “very conservative” are also most likely to back Trump and Cruz, who polled at 35 percent and 30 percent respectively.
With an inevitable showdown in the South between Trump and Cruz drawing near, evangelicals are set to play a decisive role. And Trump plans to step up his courtship of evangelical voters as the Feb. 1 Iowa vote nears.
His campaign sent word Tuesday he will speak on Jan. 18 at the evangelical hot-spot of Liberty University, where he will try to consolidate his support among conservative Christians.
From the Religion News Service:
Falwell, a Baptist, has listed Trump as one of his top three favorite candidates, along with Ben Carson and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
"I think Trump reminds me so much of my father," Jerry Falwell said during a television appearance in December. "He says exactly what he thinks no matter what anybody cares."
(Note: A version of this post appeared in today's Daily Jolt .)
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