The race gets interesting leading up to the primaries.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: In what is turning out to be one of the most exciting run-up to the primaries for the Republican Party, with a growing number of aspirants for the Presidential polls in 2016, a new poll now shows that Florida congressman Marco Rubio is tied for the second place with former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and both only three points behind the front-runner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
The new Zogby Analytics poll comes even as Rubio has given strong indications that he plans to join the strong list of contenders for the White House. The poll has Romney ahead with 16 percent support and Rubio and Bush tied at 13 percent, reported the Washington Examiner.
The poll finds that women especially favor Rubio and also that he has a lot of room to gain with men, who typically vote in majorities with Republicans in the general election.
Romney does better among men (20%) than women (13%) and among self-identified Republicans (19%). Bush also does better among men (16%) than women (10%) and gets 14% support among self-identified Republicans (14%). But Rubio is receiving 22% support among women to only 4% of men and does equally well (16% each) among both self-identified Republicans and conservatives, the Examiner reported.
Zogby had this to say of the poll: “The first is that there is certainly no runaway frontrunner. At a time when name recognition matters, both the former party nominee and the scion of the nation’s preeminent Republican family are polling anemically. The second takeaway is the fact that Rubio has entered the first tier, especially among GOP women and is able to do well among both establishment and conservative voters. He has gained 6 points just in the last month. He will definitely receive more scrutiny and we will see if he can emerge as the frontrunner.”
CNN reported that Rubio is moving forward with preparations for a potential presidential bid, bringing on a new finance director and planning a fundraising swing across California next week.
Anna Rogers, currently the finance director for American Crossroads, the GOP outside group launched by Karl Rove, is joining Rubio’s political action committee at the start of the next month and would serve as his finance director if he runs in 2016.
He’s also planning to miss votes in the Senate next week to take a fundraising trip through California, and will visit the early presidential primary states next month. In February, he has fundraising stops in Texas and Chicago planned, CNN reported.