According to Public Policy Polling’s Wednesday poll, Donald Trump is in first place among GOP candidates in North Carolina, receiving 16 percent of the vote.
Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are trailing close behind with 12 percent. Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio all received less than 10 percent of the vote.
The outspoken billionaire and real estate tycoon is especially favored by “very conservative” voters, with 66 percent favoring him as opposed to 24 percent who have a negative view of Trump.
Jeb Bush had been previously leading in North Carolina, but has slipped in the polls considerably. Among very conservative voters, 44 percent do not like Bush, while 37 percent do. Only seven percent have him as their favorite candidate. Bush’s favorability rating is second worst, beating only Chris Christie.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton still has a dominating lead over the socialist Bernie Sanders despite his recent traction, garnering 55 percent of the vote to Sanders’s 20 percent.
The results on the GOP side are surprising based on Trump’s recent June 16 comments about illegal immigrants in his presidential campaign speech: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.” (RELATED: Trump SHOCKED By Backlash From Comments On Mexican Illegals)
Trump received quite a bit of backlash for these comments, with companies like Macy’s, NBC, PGA, and Univision cutting ties with him.