First post-debate poll shows Trump hasn't lost his lead – but Carly Fiorina has eaten into Ben Carson's support after she won the 11-Republican showdown
- Trump still trumps all others in the Republican primary race
- Second-placer Ben Carson now has rival Carly Fiorina nipping at his heels
- Fiorina won rave reviews for her performance, as she did during the first GOP debate in Cleveland in August
Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina may have shared a tense moment during Wednesday's Republican presidential debate, but on Friday they shared something else - good news from the first published poll after the 11-candidate contest.
While the billionaire Trump still leads his GOP rivals by a healthy margin, Fiorina has made significant inroads into second place, behind Ben Carson, and now could take over the runner-up position.
The poll, by Morning Consult, included voters who watched Wednesday's debate. It shows Fiorina clearly won the debate, after several weeks of eking out a living on the campaign trail among lower-tier candidates.
Twenty-nine percent of 504 poll respondents - and registered voters - named Fiorina the winner, with just 24 percent who said the same of Trump.
Billionaire Donald Trump has seen his standings in the polls stay strong after Wednesday's Republican presidential primary debate, but now he has a new face with which to contend - Carly FIorina
Carson was a distant third when asked about his performance, with only about seven percent naming him the winner, followed by six percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio.
The other candidates all followed with lower numbers.
Fiorina herself was responsible for perhaps the debate's most dramatic moment, when she was invited to respond to disparaging remarks Trump made about her face in a recent Rolling Stone interview.
'I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,' she said, in one of the night's biggest applause lines.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Fiorina has turned two stellar debate performances into a viable candidacy on the Republican side of the 2016 presidential race
Before Wednesday, Trump was being trailed closely by retired surgeon Ben Carson, but now he also has to face Fiorina - whom he personally insulted in a recent interview
A closer look at the MC poll results shows while Trump is still far ahead, most of Carson's support was siphoned off by Fiorina.
A pre-debate poll by Morning Consult had shown Fiorina at just 3 percent, far behind Carson, while she now sits just two percent behind him in voters' preference.
Indeed, Fiorina received rave reviews from most media critics on Thursday and Friday, which should translate into higher poll standings in the coming days.
The most recent compilation average of major, national polls by RealClearPolitics had shown Trump in first place in the race, with 30.5 percent, followed by Carson at 20 percent. Fiorina was far back in the pack at 3.3 percent.
Many reporters focused on the exchanges between Trump and Fiorina as perhaps the biggest fireworks of Wednesday night's GOP presidential primary debate
But that was before Wednesday night, which gave Fiorina a chance to shine in the prime-time debate. She had been relegated to the matinee debate for lower-tier candidates in the first GOP primary debate in August in Cleveland.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO got rave reviews at that debate as well, and saw her poll numbers turn up enough to send her into the top tier of candidates on Wednesday.
The MC poll had a 4.4. percent margin of error, which barely but still leaves Fiorina on top.
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