DETROIT – Donald Trump wins support from 25.2 percent of Michigan Republican primary voters and holds a 10-point lead over Ted Cruz, according to results from a poll conducted exclusively for WDIV/Local 4 and the Detroit News.
However, 21 percent of voters remain undecided. Another 47 percent of the respondents said they are open to changing their minds while 68 percent said they are either undecided or open to change.
The Glengariff Group, Inc. conducted this 600-sample survey of likely primary voters in Michigan’s Republican Presidential Primary. The live operator telephone survey was conducted between Feb. 14-16, 2016 and has a margin of error of +/-4.0 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence. Eighty percent of interviews were conducted via land-line telephone and 20 percent of interviews were conducted via cell phone.
View: Gallery of results
Digging into the results:
According to this poll's results, Trump is winning big in Macomb County with 39.6 percent of the vote. Nearly 43 percent of the respondents have a favorable view of the boisterous American businessman. His lead is driven by Republican men without a college degree where he holds a 2-1 lead over Ted Cruz.
Trump is 25.2 percent of the respondents' first choice for the primary, while 15 percent chose Cruz for first choice. Marco Rubio came in third for first choice, but he was first for second choice with 18.9 percent of the vote.
Which Republican candidate would have the best chance of winning in the November general election? Donald Trump, according to 40 percent of the people who participated in this poll. The next closest is Cruz, with 15.3 percent of the vote.
Among those who say they will vote for Trump, 64 percent of them say they will definitely vote for him. That's a big advantage over the other candidates -- 46.7 percent of Cruz voters said they will definitely vote for him.
Moreover, according to this poll, the least important characteristic of a candidate is that he can win the presidency in November. Voters overwhelmingly think the most important characteristic is a candidate who shares their position on issues.
And with all this information it's no surprise 27.3 percent of respondents said Trump shares their position on important issues.
Other questions included who participants think would shake up Washington the most, and an overwhelming 70.2 percent said Trump. Cruz was second with just. 11.5 percent of the vote.
Finally, if strong moral character were the most important attribute for a candidate, according to these respondents, Dr. Ben Carson would get more votes -- 26.7 percent of respondents said Carson is the candidate with the strongest moral character.
