Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney leads all of his rival candidates, including the surging Rick Santorum, in the latest poll of voters in Arizona.
The American Research Group (ARG) poll released Wednesday shows Mr. Romney garnering 38 percent of the votes, trailed by Mr. Santorum at 31 percent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sits in third place in Arizona with 15 percent of the votes, trailed by Texas lawmaker Ron Paul at 11 percent.
The ARG poll shows similar results for Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul to recent polls of Michigan voters, where they also trail Mr. Santorum and Mr. Romney by wide margins.
The Arizona and Michigan Republican primary elections are scheduled for February 28th.
None of the candidates have made an aggressive push to court voters in Arizona thus far, with Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum focusing on Michigan.
The new Arizona poll shows that voters in Arizona are likely influenced by Mr. Santorum’s recent primary victories in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado.
In a late January ARG poll of voters in Arizona, Mr. Santorum was in last place while Mr. Romney was in a statistical tie with Mr. Gingrich at 32 percent.
Since that poll, Mr. Gingrich’s campaign has declined dramatically in popularity, although he has stated that he plans on remaining in the race all the way through the Republican National Convention in August.
Mr. Romney is leading Mr. Santorum in Arizona, but has failed to appeal to voters in Michigan, despite being born and raised there.
The winner of the Arizona primary election will receive all of the Grand Canyon state’s 29 delegate votes, as the RNC has designated Arizona as a “winner take all” state in the Republican primary election.
Arizona should result in a victory for Mr. Romney, as the state has a large Mormon population. The Bain Capital co-founder also enjoys the support of U.S. Sen. John McCain, a popular Arizona Republican who ran for president unsuccessfully in the 2008 presidential election.
The ARG poll shows Mr. Romney leading Mr. Santorum among Tea Party Republican voters in Arizona. The former Massachusetts governor has struggled to attract the Tea Party voting demographic throughout the primary race.
All of the Republican candidates will travel to Mesa, Arizona on February 22nd for the next presidential debate to be moderated by CNN and the Arizona Republican Party.
That debate should prove to be a crucial national platform for Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul who have just one primary victory between them thus far.
The ARG pollsters surveyed 600 likely primary voters in Arizona between February 13th and February 14th, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
