Today’s poll marks the first of a new biweekly 2012 presidential tracking poll cosponsored by ConservativeHome and the Daily Caller.
The tracking poll asks conservative Republicans their views of potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates. Respondents are part of the ConservativeHome Republican Panel, which has been assembled by YouGov. They are likely primary voters, 70 percent of whom have donated time or money to candidates for public office.
We presented respondents with a list of potential candidates, and asked six questions. Here are the top five for each question we asked:
Who do you like the most?
- 15% - Chris Christie
- 14% - Sarah Palin
- 12% - Newt Gingrich
- 10% - Mitt Romney
- 9% - Michele Bachmann
Who is most likely to win in 2012?
- 27% - Mitt Romney
- 15% - Chris Christie
- 12% - Newt Gingrich
- 10% - Mike Huckabee
- 6% - Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty (tie)
Who is the most conservative?
- 19% - Michele Bachmann
- 16% - Sarah Palin
- 14% - Ron Paul
- 11% - Newt Gingrich
- 7% - Chris Christie
Who would do the best job on the economy?
- 16% - Chris Christie
- 15% - Mitt Romney
- 14% - Donald Trump
- 10% - Newt Gingrich
- 7% - Sarah Palin
Who would do the best job keeping Washington’s spending under control?
- 20% - Chris Christie
- 11% - Newt Gingrich
- 10% - Ron Paul and Sarah Palin (tie)
- 9% - Michele Bachmann and Donald Trump (tie)
Who would do the best job handling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- 25% - John Bolton
- 24% - Newt Gingrich
- 7% - Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney (tie)
- 6% - Mike Huckabee
Newt Gingrich is the only individual to appear with double digits in each of the 6 categories.
Chris Christie is the only individual to garner 15% more than twice (he was above 15% in 4 categories). Romney was above 15% twice. Bolton, Gingrich and Palin were each above 15% once.
Respondents were able to make selections from the following list:
- Michele Bachmann
- Haley Barbour
- John Bolton
- Herman Cain
- Chris Christie
- Mitch Daniels
- Newt Gingrich
- Mike Huckabee
- John Hunstman
- Gary Johnson
- Sarah Palin
- Ron Paul
- Tim Pawlenty
- Rick Perry
- Mitt Romney
- Rick Santorum
- Donald Trump
For the next tracking poll, we will add Buddy Roemer. We have kept Chris Christie on the list, despite his denials about running, for the sake of comparison (and in unlikely event he changes his mind!).
The poll consisted of responses from 736 members of the Republican Panel.
