There has been a dramatic shift in the last few days in several polls in South Carolina with Mike Huckabee erasing a nine point lead by John McCain this week.  Huckabee now has a new seven point lead according to the latest poll released by the American Research Group. going into Saturday's GOP Republican primary showdown.

Mitt Romney who hasn't even been campaigning in South Carolina dropped 11 points in the poll in just two days.  Both Huckabee and Fred Thompson increased their numbers from previous Romney supporters.  McCain's poll numbers dropped seven points since his loss in the Michigan primary this last Tuesday.

South Carolina 
Republicans                         Jan 15-16                     Jan 17-18
 
Giuliani                                     4%                              3%
Huckabee                                 23%                            33%
McCain                                     33%                            26%
Paul                                         1%                              2%
Romney                                    20%                             9%
Thompson                                 13%                            21%
Undecided                                 3%                              4%

In the American Research survey, Mike Huckabee leads among Republicans with 37%, followed by John McCain and Fred Thompson with 22% each.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee has regained a tie for the lead in the South Carolina GOP Republican poll according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey released just today.  The poll is the first one taken since the Michigan primary on Tuesday which John McCain lost to Mitt Romney.  Huckabee finished a strong third in Michigan having been outspent about 50-1. 

Huckabee had been leading the South Carolina polling consistently for several weeks until McCain's win in New Hampshire.  McCain then pulled ahead of Huckabee for over a week until this new poll was released today.  The "average" poll currently at RealClearPolitics.com include several South Carolina polls prior to the Michigan context, which it appears has softened the bounce McCain may have had since New Hampshire.

Here is a excerpt from the Rasmussen article today:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary shows that John McCain and Mike Huckabee are tied at 24%. In a race that has already seen four different candidates with the lead, much could still change in the coming days--7% of voters have yet to make up their mind, 10% say there’s a good chance they could change their mind, and another 24% might change their mind.

The latest survey was conducted the night after Mitt Romney’s victory in Michigan. In South Carolina McCain and Huckabee have been battling for the top spot for several weeks. Huckabee was ahead following his victory in Iowa. McCain took a narrow lead after his victory in New Hampshire. Then, just before the Michigan Primary, McCain opened a nine-point lead, 28% to 19%. McCain’s lead grew as Fred Thompson chipped away at Huckabee’s support.

Seventeen percent (17%) of the state’s Likely Republican Primary Voters named national security as the top issue while 14% said the War in Iraq.  McCain and Huckabee are essentially even among those who name the War in Iraq as their top priority.

 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Mike Huckabee on top in the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination. It’s Huckabee 23%, John McCain 20%, Mitt Romney 18%, Fred Thompson 12%, and Rudy Giuliani 11%. Ron Paul attracts 2% support.

Among conservatives, Huckabee attracts 27% and Romney is second with 19%. Among moderates, McCain leads with 29% and Romney is second with 18%.

The 23% for Governor Huckabee ties his best national poll numbers he had for several days in mid December.  Huckabee has lead the poll nationally for most of the last 30 days except for several days after the New Hampshire victory by McCain.  It appears that McCain has cooled off in his national numbers since then, expecially after his loss in Michigan - dropping four points in the poll in the last five days.

Rasmussen Reports national poll is unique in that a new poll is taken daily - the poll results published each day represents an average of the last four days of polling.

Governor Mike Huckabee now leads in a new Michigan poll among Republican candidates according to RealClearPolitics.com.  From the Rossman Group (January 6 - 7) -

Huckabee 23

Romney 22

McCain 18

Giuliani 8

Thompson 4

Paul 3

The Huckabee campaign also released the ad below in the state of Michigan today:

Governor Mike Huckabee continues to ride the wave of momentum after his convincing Iowa Caucus win last week as he tops all Republicans in a new national USA Today / Gallup poll.  Huckabee has risen by nine points in the poll in the last month and Mitt Romney has dropped to fifth place in the national poll.

Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama -- both winners in last week's Iowa caucuses -- have gained support at the national level among those who identify with their respective parties. Huckabee now has a 5-percentage point advantage in the Republican race nationally, while Obama is tied with Hillary Clinton.

These results are from the latest USA Today/Gallup poll of national adults, conducted Jan. 4-6, 2008. All interviews were conducted following Huckabee's and Obama's wins in Iowa last Thursday night. Results from Tuesday's New Hampshire primary may produce still further changes in the national standing of the candidates.

Among Republicans, Huckabee has jumped from 16% of the vote in December 2007 to 25% as of this polling. Coupled with the loss of support for former front-runner Rudy Giuliani, Huckabee is now the leader among Republicans nationally, with a 5-point lead over Giuliani and 6-point lead over John McCain (who has gained 5 points since December). Mitt Romney, after failing to win in Iowa, is now in fifth place nationally with just 9% of the vote, which is his lowest percentage since early October.

Governor Mike Huckabee is once again the leader in a new Rasmussen Reports daily presidentail tracking poll today.  Huckabee has increased five points from 16% to 21% in his national numbers since his convincing Iowa Caucus win last Thursday and has opened up a three point lead over MItt Romney (19%) and John McCain (18%).

Governer Mike Huckabee has maintained a solid lead among Republican candidates in a new Des Moines Register poll yesterday.  This is the last major Iowa poll to be released before the caucus voting on January 3rd.

The size of Huckabee's lead is virtually unchanged from the last Iowa Poll taken in late November, despite Romney's hard-charging effort to regain the top spot that he held earlier in the year . . .

Huckabee, whose Iowa support has soared in the last two months, continues to benefit from the backing of religious conservatives who have an affinity for him and the values he espouses:

- Nearly one-half of likely Republican caucusgoers describe themselves as born-again or fundamentalist Christians. Within that large group, Huckabee outpolls Romney, 47 percent to 20 percent. Romney has faced questions about his religious standing as a Mormon.

- Among those who think it's more important for the next president to be a social conservative than a fiscal conservative, Huckabee leads Romney 48 percent to 24 percent. Romney holds a much narrower lead over Huckabee -- 29 percent to 25 percent -- among those who say it's more important to be fiscally conservative.

- Among those caucusgoers who think it is very important for them to agree with a candidate's religious beliefs, 54 percent favor Huckabee. - Huckabee scores highest in the poll as the candidate who matches caucusgoers' own core principles.

The poll shows religious beliefs matter a great deal to likely Republican caucus participants in general. Those who think it helps the Republican Party to place greater emphasis on Christian beliefs outnumber those who think it is hurtful to the party, 47 percent to 29 percent.

New polling in Missouri by Rasmussen show Governor Mike Huckabee as the only GOP candidate that leads both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in head-to-head match-ups.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a slight edge over leading Democrats in the race for Missouri’s Electoral College Votes. Not only that, he runs a bit stronger than former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani when matched against those same Democrats.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Huckabee with a 45% to 43% advantage over New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Huckabee also leads Illinois Senator Barack Obama 45% to 41%.

While Huckabee has a slight advantage over the Democrats, another Republican hopeful finds himself at a slight disadvantage. Giuliani now trails Clinton by six points, 45% to 39%. In October, Missouri voters gave Giuliani a narrow lead over Clinton.

Mike Huckabee has leaped into second place in a new Field Poll of California Republicans released today.  Huckabee rose from just 4 percent two months ago to 17 points now, just eight points behind Rudy Giuliani.

The Field Poll conducted December 10-17 found 25 percent backing former New York Mayor Giuliani, unchanged from October, while former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee's support rose to 17 percent from 4 percent over the same two months in California, the biggest prize of all the primaries.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 15 percent support, followed by Arizona Sen. John McCain at 12 percent, according to the poll of 322 likely Republican voters that had a margin of error of 5.7 percentage points.

Although Iowa and New Hampshire, which hold the first two presidential nominating contests early next month, have dominated the candidates' attention, California will select about one-fifth of the delegates needed to choose the Republican and Democratic candidates who will face off in the November 2008 election.

Californians go to the polls on February 5, so-called "Super Tuesday," when more than 20 states hold primaries.

The Field Poll found a sharp drop in support for actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson to 6 percent from 12 percent over the past two months. Another 18 percent were undecided.

In a new Washington Post/ABC News Iowa Poll released today Governor Mike Huckabee's numbers have risen to 35% compared to 27% for Mitt Romney.  Huckabee's poll numbers have quadrupled since a similar poll was taken in July.

In the last month Huckabee gained 11 points despite multiple attacks from Romney and Fred Thompson.  Huckabee has also doubled his support among women since November.

Huckabee's support in Iowa has risen on a steep curve. In a Post-ABC poll in late July, 8 percent of likely caucusgoers supported him, and last month his backing stood at 24 percent. His increase of 11 percentage points from November came despite a barrage of attacks from Romney and Thompson.

Republican women, particularly those who describe themselves as evangelicals and those who attend church regularly, are the primary force behind Huckabee's recent increases. Women now support him over Romney by an 18-point margin; men divide their votes about evenly between the two.

Over the past month, Huckabee's support among women has doubled, from 22 percent to 45 percent. Female voters have largely abandoned Thompson over the same period, with their support dropping from 14 percent to 3 percent.

The significant growth in Huckabee's support among women may be a sign that his style of social conservatism with a smile is resonating. Four in 10 women said the more they hear about the former Arkansas governor, the more they like him, more than double the proportion saying they like him less as they learn more.

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Governor Mike Huckabee's surge continues with a new six point national lead in today's Rasmussen Reports National Poll.  Despite a recent barrage of attacks ads from several other candidates, Huckabee has actually increased his national lead in this daily presidential poll.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows a continuing slide for Rudy Giuliani. In the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination, it’s Mike Huckabee at 21%, John McCain and Mitt Romney at 15% each, Giuliani at 13% and Fred Thompson at 12% (see recent daily numbers). Ron Paul currently attracts 6% of Likely Republican Primary voters nationwide.

Mike Huckabee has surged into a virtual tie with front-runner Rudy Giuliani in the national 2008 Republican presidential race two weeks before the first contest, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas whose campaign has caught fire in recent weeks, wiped out an 18-point deficit in one month to pull within one point of Giuliani, 23 percent to 22 percent.

Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton's national advantage over second-place rival Barack Obama shrunk slightly to eight percentage points as the races for the White House tightened in both parties. Clinton had an 11-point edge last month. Click here to read the rest of this story.

An updated survey in Texas from IVR Polls has Mike Huckabee now well in front of Rudy Giuliani.  Huckabee more than doubled his percentage in the polls to 29% compared to one month ago while Giuliani dropped 7 points.

Huckabee – 29% (+13)

Giuliani – 16% (-7)

Thompson – 14% (-2)

Romney – 14% (+2)

McCain – 7% (-2)

Paul – 6% (+1)

Whether caused by questions about Rudy Giuliani's expenses as Mayor or Mike Huckabee having a good debate and striking gold with the Redeem the Vote email list, things are changing fast in the GOP presidential primary. Huckabee shot up to 29%, matching Fred Thompson's high point from June, while Thompson has fallen to half his previous support. Last month, the two were tied for second. Guiliani has the largest drop and falls to a statistical three-way tie with Romney and Thompson, though he still maintains a slight lead. The issue questions from last month were repeated and comparing the two sets, it would appear that some of Giuliani's more moderate voters have shifted to Huckabee. The profile of Giuliani's supporters is more conservative this month, while the profile of Huckabee's supporters is more moderate than last month, which is in line with moderates shifting support.

The new Rasmussen Reports national poll today shows Mike Huckabee with a new five point lead over Rudy Giuliani. with Huckabee garnering a majority of both men and women primary voters as well as conservatives.  A Rasmussen commentary suggests that the Huckabee surge now dominates every campaign which has thrown the Republican race for President in disarray.

For the seven days ending December 16, Huckabee enjoyed a slight lead in national polling over the other Republican hopefuls. He currently leads in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida. He is tied for the lead in Michigan. Romney leads in New Hampshire. Rasmussen Reports will release new polling from South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire this week.

Nationally, Huckabee, attracted roughly the same percentage of support from Republicans and from Independent voters likely to take part in a GOP primary. Giuliani places second among Republican voters, McCain is second among Independents. However, Independent voters are still much more interested in the Democratic Nomination contest.

Nationwide, Huckabee attracts 30% of conservative voters. Giuliani earns 16%, Romney 14%, and Thompson 13%.

Among men, it’s Huckabee 23%, Giuliani 20%, and Thompson 14%. Among women, it’s Huckabee 24%, Romney 17%, and Giuliani 15%.

Despite a series of recent negative news attacks, Governor Mike Huckabee has opened up his largest lead yet in today's Rasmussen Reports national poll over Rudy Giuliani.  Huckabee's 23% is his highest percentage in the poll ever compared to just 6% about two months ago.  Giuliani has fallen below 20% for the first time in months.

In the race for the Republican Presidential Nomination, t’s Mike Huckabee at 23%, Rudy Giuliani 18%, Mitt Romney at 15%, Fred Thompson at 13% and John McCain at 11% (see recent daily Presidential Tracking numbers)  Ron Paul currently attracts 6% of Likely Republican Primary voters nationwide.

The Rasmussen Reports weekly analysis notes that the rise of Huckabee has thrown the Republican race into disarray.