Rand Paul Vaults to GOP Top Tier in latest PPP Poll

A new PPP poll finds Kentucky Senator Rand Paul coming in second among Republican voters' most favored candidates to run for president in 2016. Just over a month ago, Rand Paul came in at 6th place with just 10 percent among likely Republican voters. Now Paul garners 17 percent of Republican voters, the second most likely candidate to be mentioned. 

Among Republican voters, 75 percent have a favorable opinion of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), 62 percent have a favorable view of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and 60 percent are favorable toward Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

Interestingly, Chris Christie was the only Republican asked about who received higher marks from Democrats (42 percent) than Republicans (39 percent). Christie's favorability among Democrats may be a harbinger of the 2016 race. When asked who Republican voters would like see run for president, 21 percent named Marco Rubio, but in a close second and third 17 percent named Rand Paul, 15 percent named New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Other Republican candidates making the list include Paul Ryan (12 percent), Jeb Bush (12 percent), Rick Santorum (5 percent), Bobby Jindal (4 percent), Rick Perry (2 percent), and Susana Martinez (1 percent).

Among Democratic voters, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tops the list of most favorable at 84 percent, followed by Vice President Joe Biden (73 percent), and Senator Elizabeth Warren a distant third at 43 percent.

In hypothetical match-ups among likely primary voters, Hillary Clinton beats each potential Republican candidate. Hillary beats Chris Christie by 4 points, Rand Paul by 6 points, and Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan by 7 points. However, Chris Christie beats Joe Biden by 9 points 49 to 40 percent. Nevertheless, Joe Biden beats the remaining potential Republican contenders: by 2 points over Marco Rubio, 3 points over Paul Ryan, and 4 points over Rand Paul.

PPP surveyed 1247 voters included oversamples of Democratic and Republican primary voters from March 27-30 2013. The margin of error is +/- 2.8% overall, +/-3.8% for Democrats and +/-2.9% for Republicans.