Donald Trump Leads in Latest Winthrop Poll

Donald Trump leads in South Carolina in latest Winthrop Poll after controversial remarks

Columbia , S.C. (WOLO) — In the latest Winthrop University poll, Donald Trumps leads with 24% of the vote in South Carolina. Ted Cruz takes 16% and Ben Carson follows with 14%.

“What it shows is a fair amount of stability,” said University of South Carolina Political Science Professor Robert Oldendick.

Stability Oldendick said may not waiver, even after Trump’s controversial comments earlier this week about banning Muslims from entering the United States. His comments sparked major backlash from several members of the Republican Party.

“The reaction from the other Republican candidates, from the Republican chairs, were all pretty negative and they said ‘this is not what the Republican Party stands for,’ but we have seen a couple national polls that have come out today that indicated certainly no decrease in his support and maybe a little strengthening,” explained Oldendick.

Roughly 3 months away from the First in the South Primary, Oldendick said he expects Trump to maintain his lead, but believes the race will tighten if more Republican candidates drop out of the race for the White House.

“What’s going to happen is those other candidates, some of them are going to start to drop out,” said Oldendick. “Some people that are supporters of those candidates are polling at 1 or 2 percent, they are going to say ‘you know we really need to try to find another candidate’ so that the candidates that are kind of in the second tier; Rubio, Cruz, and to a lesser extent Christie, I think they’re going to get some more support.”

Trump is expected to campaign in South Carolina this weekend at a Town Hall in Aiken.