Last month when we polled North Carolina and found Donald Trump leading the Republican field, it was the first poll by anyone anywhere to find Trump out ahead. He was at 16%. Our newest survey of the state finds that Trump's momentum has just continued to grow. He's now at 24% to 14% for Ben Carson, 13% for Jeb Bush, 10% for Ted Cruz, 9% for Marco Rubio, and 6% each for Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Scott Walker. Those folks make for a pretty clean top 8 in the state. Rounding out the field are Rand Paul at 3%, Chris Christie and Rick Santorum at 2%, John Kasich and Rick Perry at 1%, Jim Gilmore, Bobby Jindal, and George Pataki with less than 1%, and Lindsey Graham with literally no supporters. Trump's 8 point gain gives him the biggest momentum in the state over the last month. The other two candidates with upward momentum are Carson and Cruz. Carson's gone from 9% to 14% as people's first choice. Beyond that he's 21% of voters' second choice, making him the clear leader on that front. And his 66/11 favorability rating makes him the most popular of the GOP hopefuls in the state. Cruz has gone from 6% a month ago to his 10% standing now.
The losers in North Carolina over the last month are Walker, Huckabee, Paul, and Christie. Walker's dropped 6 points from 12% last month to now 6%. His 51% favorability rating remains unchanged, but voters just seem to be finding others of their options to be more compelling. It's a similar story for Huckabee. His 60% favorability rating ties him with Rubio as the second most broadly liked candidate in the state behind Carson, but the share of voters who actually want him as the nominee has dropped from 11% to 6%.
The news is worse for Paul- he has seen a precipitous decline in his popularity. A month ago his favorability in the state was 49/22. Now it's 31/47- it's clear from three polls we've done now since the debate that it killed Paul's image. He's dropped from 7% to 3% in the horse race.