--- title: Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll description: Ohio Gov. John Kasich pulled ahead of Sen. Marco Rubio in a new national poll that found the two at the bottom of the pack canonical: https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-08T23:09:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:20:27.776Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll og:description: While John Kasich pulled ahead of Marco Rubio og:url: https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73f8adbfe68d52eb/69888a328e0601670d464f1e/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Trump rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll twitter:description: While John Kasich pulled ahead of Marco Rubio twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73f8adbfe68d52eb/69888a328e0601670d464f1e/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 8, 2016 11:09 PM UTC  Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on March 7, 2016 in Concord, N.C. Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on March 7, 2016 in Concord, N.C.Jeff Siner—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Mar 8, 2016 11:09 PM UTC Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are neck-and-neck in a [new national poll](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-cruz-locked-tight-race-nationally-new-poll-n534171) that also shows Ohio Gov. John Kasich pulling ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. [Kasich](http://time.com/4249358/arnold-schwarzenegger-john-kasich/) is leading Rubio 22% to 20% among Republican primary voters, according to results of a NBC News/Wall Street _Journal_ poll released Tuesday. The poll also shows that businessman Trump and Cruz were just three percentage points apart, within the poll’s+/- 4.9% margin of error . Trump polled at 30% to Cruz’s 27%. The poll interviewed 397 Republican primary voters from March 3 to 6\. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. \[[NBC](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-cruz-locked-tight-race-nationally-new-poll-n534171)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/"},"headline":"Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll","datePublished":"2016-03-08T23:09:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:20:27.776Z","description":"While John Kasich pulled ahead of Marco Rubio","url":"https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73f8adbfe68d52eb/69888a328e0601670d464f1e/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73f8adbfe68d52eb/69888a328e0601670d464f1e/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump rally","caption":"Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on March 7, 2016 in Concord, N.C.","creditText":"Jeff Siner—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4251747/john-kasich-marco-rubio-poll/","name":"Trump and Cruz Lead New National GOP Poll"}}]}] ```