National poll: Bush pulls ahead of Republicans
Another sign that Jeb Bush had a successful campaign rollout: He now leads other Republicans in a new national poll.
The former Florida governor is the first choice of 22% of GOP primary voters, according to the NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, putting him ahead of Scott Walker (17%), Marco Rubio (14%), and Ben Carson (11%).
Of course, there are no national primaries. The road to the 2016 Republican nomination begins in the individual states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, and polls there show a closer and more diffuse race.
NBC News -- noting that the new national poll "was conducted during the buildup and coverage of Bush's official presidential announcement on June 16" -- reports that the numbers do show a strengthened position for Bush among Republicans.
"The latest survey shows him ahead among self-identified conservative GOP primary voters -- when he was in third place in April behind Rubio and Walker.
"And as we unveiled on Sunday, 75% of Republican primary voters in our new poll say they could see themselves supporting Bush -- up from 70% in April and 49% in March.
"Bottom line: While Jeb has plenty of potential problems to overcome (his last name, his positions on immigration and Common Core, his desire to run a general-election campaign instead of one aimed at GOP primary voters), this poll is very good news for him."
The full listing, per the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll:
Jeb Bush 22%
Scott Walker 17%
Marco Rubio 14%
Ben Carson 11%
Mike Huckabee 9%
Rand Paul 7%
Rick Perry 5%
Ted Cruz 4%
Chris Christie 4%
Carly Fiorina 2%
Donald Trump 1%
Lindsey Graham 1%
John Kasich 1%
Bobby Jindal 0%
Rick Santorum 0%
George Pataki 0%