Donald Trump has a 7-point lead in California over rival GOP presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich a distant third in the delegate-rich state, a new poll shows.
The Field poll released Thursday finds the Trump support is fueled at least in part by the same voters who backed political outsider Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.
Here's the breakdown:
- Trump: 39 percent
- Cruz: 32 percent
- Kasich: 18 percent
- Undecided: 11 percent
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
The poll shows GOP voters divided about the candidates, with 38 percent saying they'd be dissatisfied if Trump became the party's nominee, and 34 percent saying the same about Cruz.
The poll also finds Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton with a 28-point advantage over Trump in a hypothetical general election matchup, and with a 23-point lead over Cruz in that same scenario.
Poll director Mark DiCamillo reports Republican voters' support of Trump reflects the state's 2003 recall that ousted Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and elected Schwarzenegger, with GOP voters who backed the "Terminator" actor then now supporting Trump over Cruz 54 percent to 21 percent.
Republicans who backed another candidate in the recall support Cruz over Trump 46 percent to 27 percent.
Trump has appealed to GOP grassroots voters as "the outsider promising to put things right, to make America great again," DiCamillo tells
Politico. "It's the same appeal ... to a lot of disaffected voters."
California's GOP primary is June 7, with 172 delegates at stake.
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