By Jennifer Agiesta. Donald Trump has become the first Republican presidential candidate to top 30% support in the race for the Republican nomination, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, which finds the businessman pulling well away from the rest of the GOP field.

Trump gained 8 points since August to land at 32% support, and has nearly tripled his support since just after he launched his campaign in June. The new poll finds former neurosurgeon Ben Carson rising 10 points to land in second place with 19%. Together, these two non-politicians now hold the support of a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, and separately, both are significantly ahead of all other competitors.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush stands in third place with 9%, down 4 points since August, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz holds fourth place with 7%. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker follow at 5%, with all other candidates at 3% or less, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who notched the only other statistically significant shift in the poll by falling 5 points since August.

Trump’s gains come most notably among two groups that had proven challenging for him in the early stages of his campaign — women and those with college degrees. While he gained just 4 points among men in the last month (from 27% in August to 31% now), he’s up 13 points among women, rising from 20% in August to 33% now. Trump has also boosted his share of the vote among college graduates, increasing his support among those with degrees from 16% in August to 28% now. Among those without degrees, he stands at 33%, just slightly higher than the 28% support he had in August.

Trump has also catapulted ahead of the rest of the field among Republicans who back the tea party movement, from 27% support in August to 41% now. Among that group in the new poll, Carson follows with 21%, and Cruz, another candidate with an anti-Washington message, holds third with 11%. No other candidate tops 5% among tea partiers. (Read more from “Poll: Donald Trump Surges to 32% Support” HERE)

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Front-Runner Status Challenged? Polls Show Clinton Trailing Sanders in Iowa, NH

By Fox News. Just days after a New Hampshire poll showed Hillary Clinton slipping further behind Bernie Sanders in the vital early primary state, a fresh survey shows the Vermont senator narrowly edging ahead of her in Iowa as well.

The Quinnipiac University poll shows Sanders leading Clinton 41-40 percent.

The results are well within the margin of error and represent a virtual tie in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. But together, the polling in New Hampshire and Iowa indicates Clinton’s front-runner status is now being challenged in the primary season’s two lead-off contests.

“Obviously the campaign is delighted,” Sanders Press Secretary Lilia A. Chacon said in a statement. “People and Iowans are responding to a message based on issues. The more people know about Bernie the more they like him.”

The Clinton campaign is stressing that they always thought this would be a “close race.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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By Elliot Smilowitz. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton head-to-head, according to a new poll released Friday.

The poll by SurveyUSA finds that matched up directly, Trump garners 45 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent.

In other head-to-head matchups, Trump beats out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 44 percent to 40 percent; Vice President Joe Biden by 44 percent to 42 percent; and former Vice President Al Gore by 44 percent to 41 percent.

Trump’s surge past Clinton marks a dramatic turnaround in the polls.

A CNN/ORC sampling of national voters in late June — just days after Trump entered the race — found that 59 percent supported Clinton to 34 percent picking Trump in a head-to-head race. (Read more from “Poll: Trump Beats This Presidential Candidate Head-To-Head” HERE)

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Trump Receives 25% of Black Vote in General Election Match-up

By Kyle Olson. For all the talk about Donald Trump allegedly driving minorities away from the Republican Party, could he actually bring people in?

A SurveyUSA poll released Friday shows in a hypothetical matchup with Hillary Clinton, Trump is ahead 45% to 40%.

But digging into the racial breakdown of the respondents is revealing. For example, the poll finds 25% of black respondents say they would vote for Trump over Clinton.

How impressive is that? Let’s look at the last several presidential results for Republicans.

When President Obama was running for re-election, despite a sputtering economy that was impacting blacks the worst, Mitt Romney was able to only muster 6% of the black vote, according to the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut. (Read more from this story HERE)

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