A new poll shows some dramatic changes in the minds of Americans over their choice for president.
Ben Carson is the GOP frontrunner according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The retired pediatric neurosurgeon takes 29 percent of the Republican field, with former frontrunner Donald Trump dropping to 23 percent. Marco Rubio jumps into third place with 11 percent, Ted Cruz in fourth with 10 percent, and rounding out the top five is Jeb Bush, with 8 percent.
Hillary Clinton gained ground in this poll, earning 62 percent of the Democratic vote, a four point jump. Bernie Sanders takes 31 percent, dropping two points. Martin O’Malley gets three percent, a two point increase. Clinton now has a two-to-one lead over Sanders.
Perhaps more significant for Democrats is that overall, voters by one point said they would prefer a Republican in the White House, 44 percent to 43 percent. By contrast, at about the same time in the 2008 race for president, voters preferred a Democrat, 49 percent to 39 percent.
And yet overall, voters have a far greater positive view of Democrats as a party than Republicans:
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Images via candidates’ Facebook pages