Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may not have formally entered the presidential race, but he is already seeing mixed results in recent polling, the
Christian Science Monitor reported.
In an average of all the polling produced by
Real Clear Politics, Bush is leading the pack with 15.5 percent, ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 14.3 percent and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 12.3 percent.
But in a
Quinnipiac poll out last week, Bush was in a distant seventh place in Iowa among a wide list of possible contenders.
And a
Bloomberg poll out this week found that Bush had lost his lead in New Hampshire, slipping to third place behind Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Walker.
"Rubio, who announced his candidacy April 12, more than doubled his level of primary support since the poll's last sample, in February," said
Bloomberg's John McCormick. "Bush, who isn't expected to formally announce until June, dropped five percentage points, his lowest level since the poll started tracking the state's voters in November."
While he is doing better in some polls given his average, "Bush is hardly out of the woods yet," said
The Washington Post.
"Negative views of him still far outpace positive ones (including 36-23 in the NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll) and have done so in basically every poll we've seen," the Post said. "He'll need to turn that around."
Politico said that the polling indicates that the 2016 race will be highly competitive for Republicans.
"The early polls, which show Jeb getting clobbered in Iowa, barely ahead if at all in New Hampshire, and trading a narrow lead with his fellow Floridian Marco Rubio nationally, are predicting a ferociously competitive campaign,"
Politico said.
"We'll see the media coverage of the Republican presidential race coalesce, and soon, around a single question: Is Bush actually the front-runner, or just a guy with a lot of money trying to buy the nomination?"
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