Is Jeb Bush No Longer The GOP Front Runner For 2016?
Jeb Bush has dropped form 21 percent in March of this year down to just 10 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, ABC News on Yahoo.com reports. Not only has Bush fallen 11 percent down to just 10 percent, he is statistically tied in that same poll with Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson. Walker and Paul are ahead of him with 11 percent. That poll would quite clearly suggest there is no real front runner among those seven candidates for the GOP nomination in 2016.
Writing for The Fix for The Washington Post, Chris Cillizza poses the question, “If Jeb Bush isn’t the front-runner anymore, where does that leave him?”
Cillizza notes the results of the ABC News/Wash. Post poll that show Jeb Bush is not the clear front-runner, and notes how this is consistent with the numbers from the latest Quinnipiac University poll that shows Jeb Bush tied with Huckabee, Walker, Rubio and Carson, all at 10 percent. Bush was at 16 percent in the Quinnipiac poll in March, and has fallen to 10 percent in the latest, mirroring his decline in the ABC News/Wash. Post poll.
Jeb Bush has a favorable rating of 32 percent and an unfavorable rating of 51 percent in the last ABC News/Wash. Post poll. With the exception of Donald Trump, all the other candidates included in that poll have lower unfavorable ratings than Jeb Bush.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows Bush with a 28 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable ratings. Marco Rubio polls at 28 percent favorable to 24 percent unfavorable. Mike Huckabee’s numbers are more close, at 37 percent to 39 percent. Rand Paul is even at 34 percent for each, while Scott Walker is 22 percent favorable to 25 percent unfavorable.
The latest Fox News Poll reported by Fox News shows the same story. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are tied with 12 percent while Ben Carson has 11 percent, and Rand Paul is in fourth place with nine percent. These numbers also clearly show that no GOP candidate is a front-runner at this point.
Jeb Bush has sought to define himself as the kinder and gentler Republican candidate for 2016, the latest spin on the “compassionate conservative” definition his brother used in 2000, as the Inquisitr has reported, but the polling suggests that so far it might be very effective. It would appear that the more Jeb Bush has campaigned and become more known as a candidate (although still not officially announced as one) for the GOP nomination for 2016, the more he seems to show weakness in the polls. It is possible Jeb Bush may not make the cut, against so many other GOP candidates running in 2016, by the time voters begin to have their say in the primary and caucus contests in the various states?
[Photo of Jeb Bush by Johnny Louis for Getty Images.]
