Donald Trump Comes in First Place in a GOP Primary Poll

Donald Trump is in first place in a new national GOP primary poll from the Economist and YouGov. Despite several corporations cuttings ties with the presidential hopeful after inflammatory comments he made about Mexican immigrants, 15% of Republicans who are registered to vote put him as their first choice for presidential candidate. That puts him ahead of Jeb Bush, who got 11% of the vote, and is widely considered to be the frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential ticket.

YouGov also found that Trump is an even strongest candidate for Republicans' second choice—altogether, one in four Republicans chose Trump as their first or second choice.

But that doesn't necessarily mean he has this race in the bag: the majority of Trump's supporters actually identify as more conservative than other Republicans. Two thirds of them support the Tea Party, and they are also less likely to be college-educated.

Trump's uptick in popularity may also have another effect on the Republican party—namely, shoring up ire in his opponents. While 25% of Republicans put him as their first or second choice, 40% percent said they didn't like him. And let's not forget another illustrative study from a few weeks that showed that Republicans were more likely to use a negative word to describe Trump than a positive one. (Just one? We can think of a few.)

[via YouGov]