South Carolina GOP Presidential Debate Tonight

BREAKING UPDATE:  Ron Paul Surges To Third Place In South Carolina Primary Poll


The Ron Paul 2012 campaign appears to be gaining traction in the South Carolina Presidential Republican Primary according to polling numbers released by Rasmussen Reports and the American Research Group today.  Two separate polls had been conducted by Rasmussen on January 5 and January 12. American Research Group conducted its two separate polls on January 4-5 and January 11-12.

Ron Paul enjoyed the largest jump in the polls amongst all of the GOP presidential candidates, where he rose from 11% to 16% in that one week time period. 

Rick Santorum suffered the largest decline amongst all of the Republican candidates.  Santorum's polling numbers have fallen 8 percentage points in one week.

Newt Gingrich also gained some ground where he rose from 18% to 21%, which may indicate that his campaign in South Carolina (just like Ron Paul's campaign) is gaining momentum at just the right time eight days before the January 21st primary.

Rick Perry (6%) and Jon Huntsman (5%) still appear to be having a problem breaking out of the single digits.

RASMUSSEN:
                    1/5                     1/12         Change
Romney       27                       28             +1
Gingrich       18                       21             +3
Paul             11                       16             +5
Santorum     24                       16              -8
Perry             5                         6              +1
Huntsman      2                         5              +3

AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP:
                    1/4-5             1/11-12        Change
Romney       31                       29            -2
Gingrich       24                       25            +1
Paul              9                        20            +11
Santorum     24                        7             -17
Perry             2                         9             +8
Huntsman      2                         1             -1



POLL SOURCES:

January 12 Poll : http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/south_carolina/election_2012_south_carolina_republican_primary

January 5 Poll: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/archive/election_2012_archive/south_carolina/south_carolina_primary_romney_27_santorum_24_gingrich_18

SIMILAR STORIES:

South Carolina GOP Presidential Debate Tonight

Looking ahead to Florida and South Carolina Primaries