With the first Republican primary debate to be held on August 6, 2015, with great interest by many to see Donald Trump in his first political debate alongside of career politicians, a snapshot from Real Clear Politics taken on August 4, 2015, shown below, shows Trump dominating all GOP polling.
(Full GOP debate schedule shown at the bottom of the article)
Trump at 23.2 percent has an average of a 10.4 percent lead against Jeb Bush who comes in second with just 12.8 percent and Scott Walker takes third place with an average of 10.6 percent. All other candidates hold a sigle digit rating as seen above.
Interestingly, if you remove the NBC/WSJ poll which was conducted at the end of July with no polling done for August at all yet, Trumps average increases to an 11.8 percent lead.
Even more shocking than the numbers is the graph shown below where we see the dramatic rise of Trump from the time of his announcement until the present day.
August 6, 2015 Fox News Republican Debate 9pm ET - Top 10 Candidates (2 hours) 5pm ET - Candidates outside top 10 (1 hour) Aired On: Fox News Channel Location: Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, OH Sponsors: Fox News, facebook Moderators: Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace Rules: Top 10 candidates in an average of 5 national polls
September 16, 2015 CNN/Salem Republican Debate Aired On: CNN and Salem Radio (Press Release) Location: Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA Sponsors: Reagan Library Foundation, CNN, Salem Media Group Moderators: Jake Tapper, Hugh Hewitt, Rules: Split field into Segment B (top 10 candidates) and Segment A (remaining candidates getting at least 1% in polls) (Details)
October 28, 2015 CNBC Republican Debate Aired On: CNBC Location: University of Colorado in Boulder (Press Release) Sponsors: CNBC (Press Release)
November, 2015* Fox Business/WSJ Republican Debate Aired On: Fox Business Network Location: Wisconsin Sponsors: Fox Business Network, Wall Street Journal
December 15, 2015 CNN/Salem Republican Debate Aired On: CNN Location: Las Vegas, Nevada Sponsors: CNN, Salem Media Group
January, 2016* Fox News Republican Debate Aired On: Fox News Channel Location: Iowa Sponsors: Fox News
February 6, 2016 ABC/IJReview Republican Debate Aired On: ABC Location: St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire Sponsors: ABC News, IJReview.com (Press Release)
February 13, 2016 CBS News Republican Debate Aired On: CBS Location: South Carolina Sponsors: CBS News
February 26, 2016 NBC/Telemundo Republican Debate Aired On: NBC and Telemundo Location: Texas Sponsors: NBC/Telemundo, National Review
March, 2016* Fox News Republican Debate Aired On: Fox News Channel Location: TBD Sponsors: Fox News
March 10, 2016 CNN/Salem Republican Debate Aired On: CNN Location: Florida Sponsors: CNN, Salem Media Group
