With contests in two states completed, the most recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll finds some slight shifts in the national standings of the Republican candidates. This week’s tracking poll finds Marco Rubio dropping 3 points and John Kasich rising 4 points to a two-month high of 7 points.
In the New Hampshire primary, which took place during the period the poll was being conducted, Kasich finished in second place behind Donald Trump, Ted Cruz came in third, and Rubio finished in fifth.
Although Trump maintains his lead nationally headed into this week, he will face a different test among a more evangelical and conservative electorate in South Carolina on Feb. 20. These results are according to the latest from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll conducted online of 13,139 adults, including 11,417 registered voters.
Trump’s second place finish in Iowa behind Ted Cruz and his subsequent solid victory in New Hampshire last Tuesday has caused a sizable shift in Republican voters’ perception of who will win the eventual nomination. Fifty-six percent of Republican voters now believe that Trump will be the eventual nominee, up from about 4 in 10 (42 percent) a week ago. Trump seemed to benefit from voters’ diminished expectations of Rubio and Cruz, as Rubio dropped 8 points, and Cruz dropped 9 points in Republican expectations.
The Republican field now faces a more conservative and evangelical electorate in South Carolina on Feb. 20 than in New Hampshire. On Friday, presidential hopefuls Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz attended the South Carolina Faith and Family Presidential Forum in Greenville, in an effort to reach out to evangelical voters.









