Romney Emerges as GOP Frontrunner Following Huckabee and Trump Departures

Mitt Romney has emerged as the GOP’s clear frontrunner in 2012, according to two national polls conducted shortly after former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and flamboyant billionaire Donald Trump exited the race this past week.

A Gallup Poll released Wednesday showed that twenty percent of likely Republican voters support the former Massachusetts governor, while 18 percent plan to support Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska. 

Palin has not yet hinted whether or not she will be a candidate in 2012.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, whose presidential campaign got off to an extremely rocky start since announcing his candidacy a little more than a week ago, placed third in the Gallup survey with 11 percent of the vote.

A Gallup Poll taken a month earlier had Huckabee and Trump tied for the lead at 16 percent, with Romney trailing at 13 percent and Palin at 10.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who’s making his third bid for the presidency — his second as a Republican — lagged behind with 8 percent, while Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann, who is expected to declare her candidacy shortly, registered at 5 percent.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who’s being pressured to run by much of the party’s establishment, including many in the former Bush Administration, scored a relatively dismal 4 percent in the Gallup survey.

Similarly, a Suffolk University poll released on Wednesday gave Romney 20 percent and Palin 12 percent, followed by Gingrich at 9 percent.

The Suffolk poll, conducted May 10-17, also included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who polled 7 percent among likely Republican voters.

Ron Paul was favored by five percent, followed by Bachmann, Daniels, and businessman Herman Cain at 4 percent apiece. Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty both received 3 percent in the Suffolk survey of 1,070 likely Republican voters, while former Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, ex-New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and long-shot hopeful Buddy Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana, each polled less than one percent.

As the frontrunner, Romney will almost certainly be severely tested in his four-year quest to capture the brass ring that so painfully eluded his father, a one-time frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968. 

“With Huckabee and Trump out of the race, the whole dynamic has changed,” said David Paleologos, an adjunct professor of government and director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center. “Romney is the clear front-runner now; that’s a position he’ll have to be prepared to defend over the coming months.”