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This statistic shows the latest RCP poll average on the prospects of the Republicans who may be running in the Republican primaries for president in 2016. As of April, 2016, about ** percent of questioned Americans would most likely support Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

U.S. 2016 Elections: Republican Party nominations - additional information

Throughout the spring and summer of 2015, the most prominent candidates for the presidential elections of the following year already started announcing their candidatures. While on the Democrat side at least one candidate, namely Hillary Clinton, was expected to run with fairly high chances, on the republican front the nomination was considered anybody’s game. Not only did the Republican Party put forward a great number of viable candidates, many of them were considered to have the necessary qualities, either youth and crowd-appeal (such as Florida Senator Marco Rubio) or political experience and fundraising abilities as former Florida Governor Jeb Bush), thus leaving the GOP without a clear frontrunner. Other candidates who have gained considerable support at one time include Texas Senator Ted Cruz and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

By far the biggest surprise of the 2016 presidential elections has been the candidacy of businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump. He had already been flirting with politics for a long time, even being considered a potential running mate for George Bush on the Republican Party's 1988 presidential ticket, but he has changed his political inclinations a few times since then, going as far as to declare himself a Democrat and supporting Hillary Clinton in the 2008 elections. However, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in June 2015 and has managed to gain a considerable following, as well as a good position in opinion polls. He came out second in the Iowa Republican caucus, with * popular votes, more than Marco Rubio, but less than Ted Cruz, who won this first event of the election year.

Ahead of the February 9 New Hampshire primaries, the candidates left in the Republican race for the nomination are: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Jim Gilmore, John Kasich, Marco Rubio and last but not least Donald Trump.