By Richard Rainey,
on March 04, 2016 at 10:37 AM, updated March 04, 2016 at 10:44 AM

Donald Trump, the New York real estate mogul who has cannon-balled the 2016 Republican presidential race, incensed party elders and set off hand-ringing across the country, is enjoying a sizable lead on the eve of Louisiana's GOP primary.

The University of New Orleans found Wednesday (March 2) that 38 percent of likely Republican voters wanted to see him win the party nomination in Cleveland.

His nearest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, scored 26 percent of the vote and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., just 11 percent. Ohio Gov. John Kasich won 5 percent. The survey removed neurosurgeon Ben Carson from its list after he all but suspended his campaign in the aftermath of Super Tuesday.

The telephone survey, conducted by UNO political scientist Ed Chervenak and graduate research assistant Tony Licciardi, received 1,874 responses and had a 2.26 percent margin of error. It did not focus on the Democratic primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

The data are significant, considering little polling has been done in the Pelican State leading up to Saturday's voting. The survey did find, however, that about one in five Republicans still remains undecided.

Trump did well across across the state, although his best showing was among voters in suburban New Orleans and the north shore. While he still led all candidates among voters around Lafayette, the 3rd Congressional District also had the highest percentage of undecided voters.

Rubio, who canceled a rally in Baton Rouge Friday in order to focus on his home state of Florida, did poorly among voters under 35 despite being the youngest candidate in the race at 44.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.s...r_favorit.html