Who Leads the GOP’s 2016 Pack?
Melissa Quinn /
With the Nov. 4 midterm elections over, focus now turns to the 2016 presidential race. And among the vast field of prospective Republican candidates, one former governor has amassed a double-digit lead.
According to a new CNN/ORC poll, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tops the list of GOP 2016 presidential contenders, snagging 23 percent of the vote from Republican primary voters surveyed.
The former Florida governor’s closest competitor is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, according to the poll, who garnered 13 percent.
Rounding out the top three is surgeon Ben Carson at 7 percent. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee remain close, though, and tied for fourth with 6 percent of Republican voters supporting them.
According to CNN, Bush’s 10-point lead marks the first time over the last two years that a potential 2016 candidate has led by more than a poll’s margin of error.
Bush announced earlier this month that he would be “actively exploring” a presidential bid and was the first in a vast field of prospective Republican candidates to do so.
>>> 9 Interesting Facts About Jeb Bush
Though the former Florida governor tops the GOP’s 2016 field, conservatives strongly oppose his support of the controversial Common Core national standards.
Bush advocated for all 50 states to adopt the education standards and praised them in a 2011 Wall Street Journal op-ed.
“The Common Core State Standards define what students need to know; they do not define how teachers should teach, or how students should learn,” he wrote.
However, in recent speeches and appearances, the former governor has toned down his support and recognized opposing arguments on the issue.
“Even if we don’t all agree on Common Core, there are more important principles for us to agree on,” he said at the 2014 National Summit on Education Reform. “We need to pull together whenever we can. It starts with a basic question: If we were designing our school system from scratch, what would it look like?”
Still, according to the CNN/ORC poll, 20 percent of GOP primary voters said they are more likely to support Bush for his backing of Common Core, compared to 38 percent who said they are less likely to support him because of it.
>>> Commentary: Why Jeb Bush No Longer Inspires Conservatives