Editor’s Note: "2016 Debate Watch" is a running, bi-weekly series.
Hello, folks. It’s another day, and another debate watch update. This week, we have no new national polling information, so what Dan posted last week concerning the top ten candidates–and the August 6 Fox News' debate rules– remains the same today. The following are the averages of the latest five national polls (found here, here, here, here, and here) conducted on the 2016 race regarding the Republican nomination:
- Jeb Bush: 15.0
- Scott Walker: 10.6
- Marco Rubio: 9.4
- Ben Carson: 9.4
- Mike Huckabee: 8.0
- Rand Paul: 8.0
- Donald Trump: 6.0
- Ted Cruz: 4.8
- Chris Christie: 3.8
- Rick Perry: 3.4
While the billionaire said that the call from Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was to “congratulate,” and not chastise him, saying that the chairman told he has struck a “nerve” with the electorate; he admits that Mr. Priebus did tell him to dial it back on his comments about immigration (via NYT):
“This is shocking,” Mr. Trump, the real estate mogul who is now running for president as a Republican, of descriptions of his conversation with Mr. Priebus on Wednesday that portrayed it as lasting nearly an hour.“The call lasted for 10 minutes – maximum, maximum 15 minutes,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Priebus, he said, “knows better than to lecture me.” He added, “We’re not dealing with a five-star Army general.”
Mr. Trump did not dispute that at some point in the conversation, Mr. Priebus asked him to soften his rhetoric, which has included some caustic remarks about Mexicans, and which has some party leaders deeply concerned in terms of the lingering effect the comments could have on the party’s chances of ultimate success in 2016.
[...]Mr. Priebus “said wow, you’re really doing well in the polls, you really hit a nerve,” Mr. Trump described the chairman as saying. Mr. Priebus added, according to Mr. Trump, “It could be that you’ll be number one in the polls.”
“He said, ‘Well, you really have hit a nerve, keep going,’” Mr. Trump recalled. “He said, ‘If you could tone it down – I know that’s tough – but if you could tone it down, that wouldn’t be bad.”
Trump’s momentum in certain states, like New Hampshire, seems to have trickled into North Carolina, where he’s jumped to lead the GOP field with voters from the Tar Heel state. Mr. Trump also plans to unveil his women’s coalition to New Hampshire voters on July 16.
UPDATE: New YouGov has Trump leading the 2016 GOP field (via Hot Air):
More than four in 10 Republicans say they don’t like him, so if he hangs around long enough to be part of a two- or three-man race, he’ll meet some entrenched opposition among voters he’s trying to win over. The good news: His favorable rating, which has been abysmal in some polls, is now net positive in YouGov’s. A month ago, on June 15, they had him at 38/47. Today he’s at 49/43.