Donald Trump maintains a comfortable lead in the latest WBUR poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, while Chris Christie saw a boost to second place following the rollout of several high-profile Granite State endorsements that brought renewed attention to his campaign.
Of those surveyed, 27 percent said they’d vote for Trump (or were leaning toward him) if the election were held that day, while 12 percent said the same for Christie. In the previous WBUR poll from mid-November, just 6 percent of respondents said they’d support Christie.
The New Jersey governor has been among the most frequent visitors to New Hampshire in the year leading up to the primary, and his campaign has worked methodically to cultivate relationshipswith key players within the state’s Republican establishment.
Marco Rubio, who tied with Ben Carson for second-place in the previous WBUR poll, fell into third place with 11 percent. Carson, meanwhile, dropped several spots — behind Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and John Kasich.
The poll was conducted for WBUR by the Boston-based MassINC Polling Group, which surveyed 402 likely voters between Dec. 6 and 8.
Echoing the findings of earlier polls, voters surveyed continue to express a preference for a president who comes “from outside the political establishment” — 46 percent said they favored this trait, while 37 percent said they wanted someone “with experience in elected office.”
The poll also showed that concerns about ISIS are significant among Republican voters: 87 percent of those surveyed said the terrorist group posed a “major threat” to them or the people they know.
Illegal immigration and mass shootings by Americans were slightly less worrisome to the survey respondents, characterized as “major threats” by 57 and 49 percent of respondents, respectively. Overall, voters were less concerned about the threat of climate change — 22 percent said it was a “major threat,” while 37 percent said it posed “no real threat.”
For more analysis of the latest poll results, see WBUR’s coverage, along with the poll topline and crosstabs.