Ted Cruz made a huge advance in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Friday, which shows Donald Trump still leading the GOP presidential field, but only by 5 points in South Carolina, down from 16 points a month ago, reports The Hill.

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Donald Trump called The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll placing Ted Cruz in the Republican lead with 28 percent support to Trump’s 26 percent “a total joke,” reveling instead in a CBS News poll released Thursday showing Trump leading Cruz with 35 percent support to Cruz’s 17 percent, reports The Hill. The new poll also notes that John Kasich’s support shot up to 11 percent, challenging Marco Rubio’s third-place position at 12 percent, according to CBS.

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Donald Trump’s lead among Republicans nationally has risen again, to 39 percent, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday (Marco Rubio had 19 percent and Ted Cruz dropped four points to third place with 18 percent); on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are virtually tied, reports Politico.

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