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Donald Trump, Marco Rubio Won GOP Debate, Poll Finds
12:05 pm ET
Nov 11, 2015
2016
2016 Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, third and forth from left, respectively, were seen as the winners of the debate, according to an overnight survey.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg New
Donald Trump and
Marco Rubio won Tuesday’s night primetime Republican debate, according to an overnight poll of Internet users who watched the contest, but Mr. Trump came out as the favorite among Republicans and left the best impression about his ability to serve as president.
Some 24% of debate-viewers named Mr. Trump and 23% picked Mr. Rubio as the winner of the
eight-candidate event, which was sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News.
Ted Cruz and
Ben Carson followed, with 13% declaring each to have won.
Mr. Trump’s lead in the Internet survey was larger among debate-watchers who said they’d vote in a Republican primary.
Among those GOP voters, Mr. Trump was declared the winner by 28%, with 23% naming Mr. Rubio. Mr. Cruz followed, with 16%, while Mr. Carson had 14%.
Other candidates were in single digits among GOP voters:
Rand Paul and
Carly Fiorina were named the winner by 7% of GOP debate-viewers, while Jeb Bush had 3% and John Kasich 2%.
The poll was conducted for the Journal by Google Consumer Surveys.The question asking which candidate won the debate was answered by 1,023 people who said they had watched the debate, including 708 who said they’d vote in a Republican primary. The survey displays questions to people who visit a set of online news, reference and entertainment websites and asks them to answer the questions in exchange for access to those sites. The margin of error varies by question but is less than plus or minus four percentage points for GOP voters and three percentage points for the full sample.
Democratic primary voters viewed the debate far differently than did Republicans.
Among Democrats, Mr. Rubio was judged the winner by the most survey respondents, followed by Messrs. Kasich, Paul and Trump.
Republican primary voters in the survey gave Mr. Trump top marks for a number of qualities. He came in first when respondents were asked which candidate was best able to handle the job of president, which candidate best understands the problems facing “people like you,’’ and who would be best able to improve the economy and keep the U.S. safe from terrorism.
Mr. Rubio came in second to Mr. Trump on those questions among GOP voters.
In conducting the poll, Google Consumer Surveys infers a respondent’s gender, age, and geographic location based on anonymous browsing history and other data. On mobile devices, people answer questions in exchange for credits for books, music, and apps, and answer demographic questions when first downloading the app. Using this data, Google Consumer Surveys builds a representative sample of thousands of respondents. (
You can see more about the methodology here.)
