A newly released Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll show Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, leading Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
The latest nationwide shows Mr. Gingrich leading Mr. Romney by nine percentage points, one of his largest leads to date.
According to the poll, Republican voters gave the former House speaker high marks for knowledge and experience, while they continued to harbor doubts about Mr. Romney’s positions on the issues and his feel for average Americans. The poll also found voters hold negative feelings towards the Georgia Republican, who has spent the past several says increasing his criticism of fellow Republican candidates.
The poll comes as a pair of surveys released early Thursday show Mr. Gingrich trailing Mr. Romney in the state of Florida.
Thursday’s poll also finds President Obama’s approval rating have increased to 48 percent, while 46 percent of voters say they disapprove of the president’s job in the White House. Previous polls had shown Mr. Obama losing to a generic Republican candidate last month, but the new survey finds him beating an unnamed Republican 47 percent to 42 percent, the widest margin in seven months.
The poll of 1,000 adults was conducted between Jan. 22 and 24, after Mr. Gingrich’s surprisingly strong victory in South Carolina’s primary.
