Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has surged five percentage points in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll to defeat former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum among Republican voters nationwide.
Mr. Paul garnered 21 percent of the votes, besting Mr. Gingrich (19) by 2 percentage points and Mr. Santorum (18) by 3 percentage points. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney pulled in 29 percent of the votes to secure a first place finish in the national level poll.
Among Independents and Republicans, Mr. Romney’s lead over Mr. Paul decreases from eight percentage points to six percentage points. The Texas congressman’s lead over Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum increases to six percentage points.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll reveals some surprising trends for the Republican candidates as they prepare to digest the results of the Missouri Republican primary and Minnesota, Colorado caucuses.
While support for Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich appears to have plateaued since a Reuters/Ipsos poll in January, Mr. Paul and Mr. Santorum have increased their support by five percentage points each among Republican voters. Approximately one month ago, Mr. Gingrich was 4 percentage points ahead of Mr. Paul but the Georgia Republican is now 2 percentage points behind the former Air Force surgeon.
Mr. Paul finished in third in the Nevada Caucuses with 18.7 percent of the votes. The Texas congressman, who has experienced a higher voter turnout in all of the elections leading up to the Nevada Caucuses, only saw 6,175 total votes Saturday.
Ipsos surveyed 881 registered voters (including 405 Republicans and 125 Independents) from February 2nd through February 6th. The poll has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points for registered voters (plus or minus 4.9 percentage points among Republicans).
