Romney, Palin Lead New Gallup Poll

Recent dropouts put familiar names on top
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 26, 2011 5:57 PM CDT
Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin on Top of New Gallup Poll for Republicans
Sarah Palin trails only Mitt Romney in new Gallup poll.   (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, file)

Gallup has crunched some new numbers given the spate of GOP candidates who have dropped out, with Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin leading the new poll. (Unless you count candidate "no opinion" at 22%.) Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump led the last month's. Of note: Newcomer Herman Cain registered a respectable 8%. The new results:

  • Romney (17%) and Palin (15)
  • Ron Paul (10), Newt Gingrich (9), and Herman Cain (8)
  • Tim Pawlenty (6) and Michele Bachmann (5)
  • Jon Huntsman (2), Gary Johnson (2), and Rick Santorum (2),

Gallup's upshot: Romney and Palin have benefited the most from the dropouts. If Palin doesn't run (though it's looking more and more like she will), "Romney would be the clear front-runner, but arguably the weakest front-runner in any recent Republican nomination campaign." Still, given that 22% have no preference, "the race remains wide open." (More Mitt Romney 2012 stories.)

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