Trump strengthens lead atop GOP field

Businessman Donald Trump has strengthened his lead among 2016 GOP presidential candidates following the first debate earlier this month, according to a new poll.

{mosads}Trump is supported by about a quarter of registered Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, with 24 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (13 percent) and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (9 percent) in the CNN/ORC International poll.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (8 percent), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (8 percent) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (6 percent) follow, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, businesswoman Carly Fiorina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich tied at 5 percent.

Trump picked up 6 points from a similar poll in July, the most of any GOP candidate. Carson and Fiorina saw increases of 5 and 4 percentage points, respectively.

Those figures come a day after another national poll from Fox News also found Trump with a double-digit lead, followed by Carson and Bush. That poll, however, found Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee among the top five candidate. They placed seventh and 10th, respectively, in the CNN poll.

The CNN poll released Tuesday also found that Trump leads GOP candidates on several issues, including the economy, illegal immigration, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, same-sex marriage and abortion.

Trump’s favorability rating among Republicans ticked up 8 percentage points in the new poll, to 58 percent. Sixty percent of Republican women view him favorably, pollsters found, as do 57 percent of Republican men.

CNN’s poll of 466 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents conducted Aug. 13-16 via landlines and cellphones has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.

— This report was updated at 8:04 a.m.