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Poll: The popular 2016 candidates aren't the ones leading the pack

The only popular candidates for president in 2016 have one thing in common: They're not winning.
Supporters of candidate John Kasich come out to support him in New Hampshire, Feb. 5, 2016.
Supporters of candidate John Kasich come out to support him in New Hampshire, Feb. 5, 2016.

The only popular candidates for president in 2016 have one thing in common: They're not winning.

Only two remaining White House hopefuls in the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll enjoy a net positive rating among registered voters : Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich and Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders.

On the other hand, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump remains very unpopular with Americans as a whole, with almost two thirds of voters giving him a thumbs down. His top GOP rival, Ted Cruz, and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton are also deeply underwater when it comes to their overall favorability.

According to the poll, just about a quarter (24 percent) of Americans give Trump a positive rating, compared to 65 percent who give him a negative one, adding up to a net negative rating of -41, a historic low for a major presidential candidate in the NBC/WSJ poll.

Clinton is 24 percentage points underwater, with a 32 percent positive rating compared to a 56 percent negative score. That's the former secretary of state's lowest rating since the poll started tracking her favorability in January 2001.

And for Cruz, it's 26 percent positive, 49 percent negative.

Kasich, who badly trails the other two remaining Republicans in the race and is already mathematically eliminated from achieving a nomination-clinching 1,237 delegates, enjoys the highest net positive rating at 31 percent positive, 19 percent negative. Kasich also remains the least well-known presidential hopeful, with 19 percent of respondents saying they don't know enough about him to form an opinion.

For Sanders, who is continuing his hard-fought race against his Democratic rival despite long odds to surpass Clinton in the delegate math, it's 45 percent positive, 36 percent negative.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted April 10-14. The margin of error for 1000 interviews among registered voters is ±3.10% 

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.