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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Donald Trump would not say if he would pardon former George W. Bush White House official Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Trump said the question was “not pertinent,” but Valerie Plame’s response on Twitter to The Daily Caller’s question to Trump about Libby was, “My head is spinning.”

Libby was convicted in 2007 for obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and one count of making false statements.

The initial indictment came in 2005 when an investigation into the leak of classified information regarding then CIA officer Valerie Plame became public in a Robert Novak column.

Former Bush Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage revealed in 2006 to CBS News, well into the investigation, that he was the Novak’s source not Libby. No one was ever indicted for actually leaking Plame’s identity. (Read more from “Former CIA Operations Officer’s Head ‘Spins’ Over Scooter Libby Question to Trump” HERE)

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By Jeremy Diamond. Donald Trump said Thursday he is opposed to tightening gun laws in the U.S. but is in favor of addressing mental health to prevent shootings, after a man shot two journalists on live television.

“This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people.”

Calling the gunman a “very sick man,” Trump said mental illness is “a massive problem” in the U.S. He suggested more resources should be devoted to addressing mental health — hoping to prevent shootings like the one in Virginia, which he called “really, very sad.”

Trump did not offer specific solutions to addressing the mental health problem, but said there are ‘”so many things that can be done” and repeatedly said the Virginia shooter, who killed himself Wednesday after killing two others, should have been “institutionalized.”

“In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized,” Trump told Cuomo. “At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean the people close to him should have seen it.” (Read more from “Donald Trump: It’s Mental Health, Not a Gun Problem” HERE)

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Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself

By David Knowles. Republican front-runner Donald Trump began to flesh out his economic vision for America, and it includes raising taxes on the wealthy.

Trump said during a Wednesday interview on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect that he would like to change the tax code.

“I would change it. I would simplify it,” Trump told hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann from the lobby of Trump Tower on New York’s 5th Ave. Specifically, Trump targeted hedge fund profits, which are currently taxed at a lower rate than regular income.

“I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars-a-year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous,” Trump said. “I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”

Asked whether his proposed changes meant he was prepared to raise taxes on himself, the billionaire framed his answer in terms of fairness. (Read more from this story HERE)

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