Trump holds double-digit lead in 2 national polls

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/21/16 9:31 PM ET

A pair of national polls released Monday find Donald Trump holding a double-digit lead over Republican presidential rivals Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Trump holds a 20-point lead in the CBS News/New York Times poll, with 46 percent support, followed by Cruz at 26 percent and Kasich at 20 percent.

{mosads}Trump is up 16 points over Cruz in the CNN/ORC International poll at 47 percent, followed by Cruz at 31 percent and Kasich at 17 percent.

The results of the poll come as Kasich insists he’ll stay in the GOP race, despite the urging of Cruz and as Trump turns his focus to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s rivals are pushing to keep him below the 1,237 delegates needed to lock up the nomination, which would force a contested convention in the summer to select a nominee.

The CNN/ORC poll finds Trump would see the most excitement if he were the nominee, with 40 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents saying they would be enthusiastic with him as the nominee.

That compares to 28 percent voicing the same sentiment if Cruz were the nominee, and 19 percent holding the same belief of Kasich. Still, 21 percent would be “upset” if Trump were the nominee, compared to 14 percent for Cruz and 17 percent for Kasich.

Three-quarters of GOP primary voters surveyed in the CBS/NYT poll expect Trump to be their nominee, with 35 percent saying they would enthusiastically support him, compared to 29 percent for Cruz and 27 percent for Kasich.

The CBS/NYT survey of 1,252 adults including 1,058 registered voters and 362 Republicans was conducted March 17–20 via landlines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The CNN/ORC survey of 1,001 adults including 925 registered voters and 397 Republicans was conducted March 17–20 via landlines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 3 points.

Tags 2016 GOP primary 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Ted Cruz