Twenty percent of Republicans polled said Romney was their preferred candidate.
Possible 2012 presidential hopeful, former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, left, greets business leaders, Tuesday, May 3, 2011, in Nashua, N.H.Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the most popular Republican contender in a recent poll conducted by the Suffolk University Political Research Center, beating out Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and nearly a dozen other candidates among likely Republican voters.
“Romney is the clear front-runner now; that’s a position he’ll have to be prepared to defend over the coming months,” David Paleologos, the center's director, said in a statement.
In the nationwide survey of 1,070 likely voters, Romney received support from 20 percent of self-identified Republicans, over the crowded field of other possible Republican candidates, with Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin receiving a 12 percent in a distant second.
In a hypothetical match-up, however, Romney still lost to President Barack Obama, with likely voters polled favoring Obama 46 percent to 43 percent, with 11 percent undecided or abstaining. Read the full survey results »