Trump up...

Poll: Trump up to 56 percent nationally

By Nolan D. McCaskill

Donald Trump reached a new high among Republicans in a national NBC News|SurveyMonkey poll released Tuesday.

The real estate mogul has 56 percent support, more than doubling his advantage over Ted Cruz, who sits at 22 percent. John Kasich rounds out the survey with 14 percent support. An additional 7 percent remain undecided.

Trump is the only Republican candidate with any mathematical path to securing the GOP nomination outright, though Cruz and Kasich are hoping to emerge as the nominee at a contested convention in July should Trump fall short of the requisite 1,237 delegates.

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters (58 percent), however, say Kasich should drop out of the race right now. The Ohio governor has won just a single state throughout the primary. Almost 40 percent said Cruz, who has outmaneuvered the front-runner in several states by securing delegates who would switch their allegiance to his campaign once they’re unbound from Trump, should fight on through the convention. Thirty-six percent said Cruz should drop out now, and another 23 percent said he should drop out after the last primaries.

In a move meant to show that he’s in it until the end, Cruz named name former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate, though voters aren’t excited about his decision. Almost half said they were dissatisfied by his announcement, and 45 percent believe he chose Fiorina because she’s a woman. Only 12 percent, however, believe he chose her because she’s the best veep candidate. Instead, 84 percent said he chose Fiorina in effort to revitalize his campaign.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton holds a 14-point lead over Bernie Sanders nationally, 54 percent to 40 percent, with 6 percent undecided.

In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, Clinton beats both Trump and Cruz, though many voters haven’t surveyed haven’t decided who they would vote for. Of those who did, however, Clinton tops Trump by 6 percentage points (43 percent to 37 percent) and Cruz by 14 percentage points (44 percent to 30 percent).

A majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters believe Sanders should continue challenging Clinton through the Democratic National Convention in July. One-in-four said the Vermont senator should suspend his campaign after the June 7 primaries, while 16 percent said he should drop out now.

Voters overwhelmingly disagreed that Trump has the temperament and personality to be an effective president (67 percent no, 32 percent yes). The differential is much smaller when it comes to Clinton. Fifty-two percent don’t believe she has the personality and temperament to be an effective leader in the White House, either, but 46 percent said she does.

The survey of 14,640 adults, most of whom said they are registered voters, was conducted April 25 through May 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points. The sample of registered Republicans has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, while the Democratic sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.