Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin are at the top of a pack of potential GOP candidates for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination, a new poll released on Thursday showed.
Conducted between May 20 and 24, the Gallup Poll is the first since Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and real estate magnate Donald Trump left the primary race.
Romney, the 64-year-old former Massachusetts governor, led former Alaska Gov. Palin by 17 percent to 15 percent. Texas Representative Ron Paul placed third at 10 percent.
While former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty are the only two candidates who have formally announced their intentions to take part in the race to challenge President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, the two trailed the others.
Gingrich, who had a rough campaign start with his criticism of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s Republican plan to overhaul Medicare, received nine percent, while Pawlenty placed sixth at six percent.
“Romney’s and Palin’s status at the top of the field is owing in large part to their high name identification among rank-and-file Republicans. Gingrich and Paul are also well-known among the party base,” Gallup said.
With 10 Republicans to choose from, 71 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, placed former pizza executive Herman Cain ahead of Pawlenty in fifth place.
Nevertheless, as many as 22 percent of respondents chose nobody.
“Cain, on the other hand, is far less well-known, but he has generated a strong positive reaction among those who do know him, which allows him to place ahead of slightly better-known candidates such as Bachmann, Pawlenty, and Santorum,” Gallup said.
