Gov. Christie Favored Among Potential Republican Presidential Candidates, New Poll Finds

Gov. Chris Christie is the preferred choice of Republicans among presidential candidates, but not by much, according to a Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll published on Thursday.

Christie captures 18 percent of the vote, with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul coming in second with 15. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz garnered 14 percent, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 11 and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker with 5.

Christie’s lead is due to his overwhelming support among moderate Republicans. He has 30 percent of the vote among this group, with Paul a distant second at 17 percent and Rubio third with 11 percent.

Among Tea Party conservatives, Christie is second with 15 percent, technically tied with Paul, who has 14. Cruz leads among Tea Party voters with 21 percent.

Conservative Republicans also favor Cruz, lending him 18 percent support, followed by Paul at 14 percent. Christie has 13 percent of the Conservative vote.

Hillary Clinton is the clear choice among Democrats with 63 percent support, the poll finds.

The poll was conducted by telephone from Dec. 9 through Dec. 15 using a randomly selected sample of 1,002 individuals of voting age. Landline households are supplemented with a separate, randomly selected sample of cell-phone respondents interviewed in the same time frame.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.