With just three candidates left in the Republican primary race, Donald Trump now holds 48 percent support of registered Republicans and Republican-leaners, according to the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll.
Trump is leading the Texas senator Ted Cruz, 48 percent to 27 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who gained 2 points since last week, follows with 18 percent.
When it comes to the possibility of a contested convention, the survey found that a majority of registered Republicans and those who lean Republican, 57 percent, believe that Trump should win the nomination if he wins a plurality of delegates, even if he fails to capture a majority of delegates.
The survey also shows 52 percent of those same voters are happy with a general election match-up between Trump and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, while 30 percent would consider a third party candidate.
The poll was conducted March 21-27 and surveyed 6,521 adults, including 5,741 who say they’re registered voters, via online.
The question in the Republican race, however, is no longer whether Trump is the clear front-runner, but whether he will reach the magic delegate number of 1,237 — and, if not, whether Republicans will support him as their party’s nominee going forward. These are big questions that have implications for the direction of the Republican Party and, ultimately, the outcome of the 2016 presidential race.
There has been intense discussion about whether the 2016 presidential primary season has caused permanent harm to the Republican Party with “establishment” candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio failing to gain traction and “outsider” candidates like Trump and Ben Carson performing well.
Although it is looking more and more certain that Trump will at least hold a plurality of delegates headed into the convention, not all Republicans agree that this means he should be the party’s nominee if he fails to get a majority.
There has been intense speculation that Republican Party leaders may put forth a new candidate at the Republican convention if Trump fails to win the requisite number of delegates to secure the nomination. After Rubio’s exit from the GOP race, former House Speaker John Boehner said, “If we don’t have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I’m for none of the above. They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I’m for none of the above.”