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GOP voters divided on Jeb Bush

Republican voters are divided in their support for Jeb Bush in the upcoming 2016 presidential race, according to results from a brand-new NBC News/WSJ poll.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush shakes hands with attendees after speaking at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 27, 2015 in National Harbor, Md. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty)
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush shakes hands with attendees after speaking at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 27, 2015 in National Harbor, Md.
By Mark Murray

Republican voters are divided in their support for Jeb Bush in the upcoming 2016 presidential race, according to results from a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

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Forty-nine percent of potential GOP primary voters say they could see themselves supporting Bush, the former Florida governor whose father and brother served as president, versus 42% who say they couldn’t back him.

But that’s a better score than some other possible Republican candidates received in the poll:

  • Only 32% of Republican voters said they could see themselves supporting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, versus 57% who couldn’t (-25);
  • Only 20% said they could see themselves backing Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., compared with 51% who couldn’t (-31);
  • And only 23% said they could see themselves supporting real-estate mogul Donald Trump, versus 74% who couldn’t (-51).

The numbers for other Republicans who ranked higher on this scale – as well as the numbers for Democrats – will be released on Monday night.

The national NBC/WSJ poll was conducted March 1-5, and the margin of error for the results from 229 Republican primary voters is plus-minus 6.5 percentage points.