Trump slips

Fiorina surges, Trump slips in CNN poll

And Scott Walker drops below 1 percent

By Steven Shepard

Carly Fiorina has surged into second place behind Donald Trump following last week's Republican presidential debate, according to a new CNN/ORC poll released Sunday.

The new poll, which was in the field during the three days after the debate, found Trump leading the pack with 24 percent — a modest drop from a CNN poll earlier this month, when he was at 32 percent.

Fiorina, whom a slight majority of poll respondents who watched the debate said did the best job, jumped to second place at 15 percent. The former Hewlett-Packard CEO was up from just 3 percent earlier this month.

Ben Carson, the soft-spoken retired pediatric neurosurgeon, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio were also in double-digits, at 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was in fifth place, at 9 percent.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee weretied for sixth, at 6 percent. And rounding out the field were Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at 4 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 3 percent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 2 percent and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 1 percent.

Candidates who failed to earn at least 1 percent included former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former New York Gov. George Pataki and — stunningly — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Carson was still the best-liked candidate in the field. Fully 65 percent of GOP voters had a favorable opinion of him, compared to just 10 percent with an unfavorable opinion.

Trump, on the other hand, remained polarizing. While a 52-percent majority had a favorable opinion of Trump, two-in-five Republicans hade a negative impression of the real estate magnate.

Fiorina's name-ID has improved over the past month: Now, 54 percent have a favorable opinion of her, compared to 17 percent who viewed her unfavorably. In August, 44 percent said they had either never heard of Fiorina or didn't know enough about her to form an opinion. In the new poll, only 29 percent din't have an opinion of her.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted Sept. 17-19, surveying 444 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters. Results carry a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

NBC News on Sunday also released results of a new SurveyMonkey poll conducted over the internet that showed Trump leading the GOP presidential field.