Bush, Walker top Fox ’16 poll

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson stand atop the Republican presidential field in a new poll.

The Fox News poll released late Wednesday finds Bush and Walker are tied for the lead with 11 percent support. Carson is the only other candidate pulling double-digit support, coming in at 10 percent.

{mosads}Carson has seen a sustained run at the top of the polls since his May 5 presidential launch. In the same poll from April, Carson was in sixth place and took only 6 percent support.

There is good news in the poll for Walker as well.

Many Republicans believe he’s a candidate that could appeal to establishment-minded Republicans and grassroots conservatives alike. He leads among those who identify with the Tea Party, taking 22 percent support, ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) at 17 percent and Carson at 12 percent.

Overall, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) is close behind the front-runners at 9 percent support, followed by Cruz at 8 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 7 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 6 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 5 percent.

Rubio and Paul are tied as the preferred second choices among Republicans.

Huckabee had the biggest drop in support. He was in fourth place in the previous poll from mid-May with 10 percent support.

It’s been a rough year for Christie, who has seen his support crater as he deals with fallout from the scandal over George Washington Bridge lane closures. He can take solace in the fact that he’s keeping pace with the second tier of Republicans.

However, 37 percent said they would not even consider voting for him. Businessman Donald Trump is the only one with worse numbers for that ignoble distinction. Fifty-nine percent said they would never vote for Trump.

The first Republican debates will be capped at 10 participants, and the poll shows seven GOP presidential hopefuls will be battling it out for the final two slots on stage.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who will launch his presidential campaign on Thursday, takes 4 percent support, along with Trump.

In addition, Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), former New York Gov. George Pataki, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and businesswoman Carly Fiorina each took 2 percent support.

Sixty percent of voters said they want to know more about Kasich, while 55 percent said the same about Fiorina.

While foreign policy has been an early focus of the campaign cycle, the poll found jobs and the economy are the most important issue to Republican primary voters.

Thirty-four percent ranked the economy as the No. 1 issue, while only 6 percent said foreign policy.

On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still has a huge lead over the field, although she has seen her support drop, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) has seen a bounce.

Clinton takes 57 percent support, down from 63 percent in the previous poll. Sanders is up 5 percentage points to 11 percent support. 

Vice President Biden comes in third at 8 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), who insists she’s not running, at 7 percent.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley didn’t register in the previous poll, but he now takes 4 percent support. 

The Fox News poll of 1,006 registered voters was conducted between May 31 and June 2 and has a 3-percentage-point margin of error.