Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Poll Watch: CBS News/New York Times 2012 Republican Nomination Survey

CBS News/New York Times 2012 GOP Nomination Poll
  • Mitt Romney 54% (30%) [27%] {28%} (19%) [20%] {15%} (21%) [17%] {16%}
  • Newt Gingrich 20% (13%) [10%] {21%} (15%) [20%] {15%} (10%) [8%] {7%}  
  • Ron Paul 12% (8%) [12%] {15%} (10%) [10%] {5%} (8%) [7%] {5%}
If Mitt Romney became the Republican nominee for President, would you enthusiastically support him, support him but with reservations, support him only because he is the Republican Party nominee, or not support him? 
  • Enthusiastically support 33% 
  • Support with reservations 40% 
  • Support only because nominee 18% 
  •  Not support 8%  
Survey of 268 likely Republican primary voters was conducted April 13-17, 2012.  The margin of error is +/- 6 percentage points.  Results from the poll conducted March 7-11, 2012 are in parentheses.  Results from the poll conducted February 8-13, 2012 are in square brackets.  Results from the poll conducted January 12-17, 2012 are in curly brackets.  Results from the poll conducted January 4-8, 2012 are in parentheses.  Results from the poll conducted December 14-18, 2011 are in square brackets.  Results from the poll conducted November 6-10, 2011 are in curly brackets.  Results from the poll conducted October 19-24, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted September 28 - October 2, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted September 10-15, 2011 are in curly brackets.
 
Inside the numbers: 
When asked if Santorum should have suspended his campaign, 63 percent of those polled said yes; 30 percent said no.

Still, many Republicans expressed lukewarm feelings toward Romney, with 40 percent of primary voters having reservations about him compared with 33 percent saying they supported him "enthusiastically." In January, the last time a CBS News/New York Times survey asked primary voters about Romney, 28 percent said they supported him enthusiastically and 38 percent had reservations.

Among Republicans with reservations of Romney are primary voters who identified themselves as white evangelicals, conservatives and supporters of the tea party movement. Half of white evangelicals told pollsters that they had reservations about Romney over the 27 percent who supported him enthusiastically. Romney received enthusiastic support from more than a third (36 percent) of conservatives and tea party backers; however, 41 percent have reservations about him.

Although evangelicals were some of Santorum's strongest supporters, 52 percent of those polled agreed that he did the right thing to bow out of the race.

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