WASHINGTON – Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul leads the potential Republican field of 2016 White House contenders, according to the latest CNN/ORC International Poll.
Paul has the backing of 16 percent of Republicans and independents who lean toward that party, the survey found.
Right behind the Kentuckian is Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee, with 15 percent.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is at 11 percent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is at 10 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 9 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz each have 8 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 5 percent and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has 3 percent, the poll found.
Neither Paul nor any of the other Republicans tested in the survey has announced his candidacy for president. Paul has said he will wait until after the mid-term election.
“With a crowded field and no clear frontrunner among the potential candidates, we should expect to see constant fluctuation in the amount of support most candidates get and the order of finish, so it would be easy to read too much into these numbers,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland cautioned.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to dominate, winning the support of 64 percent of Democrats and independents who lead to that party. Vice President Joe Biden has 13 percent.
The telephone survey, conducted March 7-9, involved 801 adult Americans, including 710 registered voters. The overall margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. For the GOP and Democratic surveys, each had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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