Poll: Evangelicals flocking to Trump

Politico | By NICK GASS | 01/26/16 06:06 AM EST

The Manhattan business mogul made headlines throughout the course of the last week for his various interactions with fellow Christians. | Getty

Donald Trump's outreach to Christians is bearing fruit, if the results of the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey weekly online tracking poll out Tuesday are any indication.

Among white evangelical Republican voters, Trump earned the support of 37 percent, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father is a pastor and has played a key role in recruiting faith leaders to support his son, is at 20 percent. In the same survey conducted the previous week, Cruz registered nine points higher. Below the top two contenders, Ben Carson earned 11 percent among evangelicals, while Marco Rubio took 10 percent.

The Manhattan business mogul, who is Presbyterian, made headlines throughout the course of the last week for his various interactions with fellow Christians, including a stop at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, last Monday. Delivering the weekly convocation address, Trump caused a stir when he made reference to a Bible verse in "Two Corinthians," rather than the usual reference of "Second Corinthians." (Trump later claimed that it was written that way in his notes, and besides, his mother was Scottish and would have said it that way.)

Trump also attended a Presbyterian service in Muscatine, Iowa, on Sunday, where the pastor made reference to the ongoing immigration crisis, a central plank in the Republican's campaign, and humility, in general. "I don't know if that was aimed at me," Trump said later.

The poll's overall week-to-week standings show little shift, with Trump leading the field at 39 percent, Cruz at 17 percent and Rubio at 10 percent. No other candidate received double-digit support.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's advantage remained in the double digits, at 51 percent to Bernie Sanders' 37 percent.

The poll was conducted online from Jan. 18-24, surveying a national sample of 9,690 adults, including 8,215 who indicated that they are registered to vote. Included in that sample are 2,327 Republicans and 2,780 Democrats, with margins of error of 2.8 percentage points and 2.2 percentage points, respectively.