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The early debates of a presidential primary campaign, though they take place months before the first nominating contests, are a powerful force in shaping the campaign, elevating some candidates while helping drive others from the race.

At this (still-early) stage, no Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial can­did­ate con­trols the vari­ous factors that ul­ti­mately lead to the nom­in­a­tion—not only the polls, but the com­bin­a­tion of fun­drais­ing, en­dorse­ments, me­dia at­ten­tion, and more that com­prise the full cam­paign.

Businessman Donald Trump leads retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson in the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, 22 percent to 18 percent, according to WBUR’s first poll of the race.

At 27 percent nationally, Donald Trump maintains his frontrunner status among Republican primary voters, but Ben Carson is now close behind him, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Poll: Hillary Clinton’s support falls by 21 points as Donald Trump gains

Hillary Clinton’s support has fallen by 21 percentage points since July, according to the latest national ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday.

Meanwhile, support for Donald Trump has surged to 33 percent, a 9-point jump during the same period and a further sign that the billionaire business mogul is in a commanding position in the Republican primary ahead of this week’s GOP debate.

Perry’s Exit May Have an Impact on the Race

The news at the end of last week that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was suspending his campaign for the GOP nomination and exiting the race took few by surprise, as numerous stories in recent weeks had reported on his campaign’s lack of funds and poor showing in the polls. The New York Times this morning has an interesting story detailing polling data that show Perry lost more than half of his support to businessman Donald Trump when the latter ... Read More >>

A lot of the support for Donald Trump is fueled by outrage against the Republican establishment. But those who ask us to understand this anger—as if it were a totally new phenomenon that none of us had ever noticed before—are ignoring the fact that Trump divides the right just as much as the establishment does.