Defying gravity and flummoxing pundits and pollsters alike, Donald Trump has become the first Republican presidential candidate to top 30 per cent support for the party nomination, according to a new poll.
A new CNN/ORC Poll released on Thursday found the real estate mogul pulling well away from the rest of the crowded field of 17 Republicans, including establishment favourite Jeb Bush, son of a former president and brother of another.
Despite a dust up with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the first presidential debate and other outlandish comments that pundits said would spell the end of the Trump candidacy, he gained 8 points since August to land at 32 per cent support.
Trump has nearly tripled his support since just after he launched his campaign in June, according to the CNN poll.
Bush, on the other hand, has fallen to the third place with 9 per cent, down 4 points since August, behind neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 19 per cent, a rise of ten points.
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, the poll found.
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 four points among men in the last month (from 27 per cent in August to 31 per cent now), he's up 13 points among women, rising from 20 per cent in August to 33 per cent now.
Trump has also catapulted ahead of the rest of the field among Republicans who back the tea party movement, from 27 per cent support in August to 41 per cent now.
Among that group in the new poll, Carson follows with 21 per cent, and Ted Cruz, another candidate with an anti-Washington message, holds third with 11 per cent. No other candidate tops 5 per cent among tea partiers.
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