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Three presidential candidates have most to gain in second Republican debate: poll

Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Three U.S. Republican presidential candidates are expected to have the most to gain from Wednesday's nationally broadcast second debate, Gallup found in a poll released on Wednesday.

The three include Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, Gallup found.

The Republican Party's field of primary candidates is one of the most crowded in U.S. history. While billionaire mogul Donald Trump leads the pack, Washington outsider and retired surgeon Ben Carson is hot on his heels, and some polls have him essentially neck-in-neck with Trump.

Kasich remains an unfamiliar face to 56 percent of Republicans. He gained recognition after the previous debate, going from a 41 percent familiarity rating to as high as 51 percent, before dropping down to his current 44 percent, Gallup found.

Fiorina is still unknown to 47 percent of Republicans. Her familiarity had been as low as 35 percent prior to the first debate, some 18 percentage points lower than where it is today. But a comparison of her current 53 percent familiarity rating to the 93 percent familiarity rating enjoyed by Donald Trump shows just how far she has to go if she is to become a serious contender for her party's nomination, according to Gallup.

Walker is unfamiliar to 44 percent of Republicans. Unlike Kasich and Fiorina, Walker's name identification has been fairly stable over the past several months, Gallup found.

There are also candidates who need to boost their unfavorable ratings. Four candidates enter the debate with unfavorable images among 30 percent or more of Republicans, meaning that these candidates' main objectives will be to convert some of those who view them in a negative light today to the positive side of the image ledger.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stands at a 36 percent unfavorable opinion among Republicans; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, at 34 percent; Donald Trump, at 34 percent; and Senator Rand Paul, at 31 percent.

Overall, despite the well-publicized fact that Trump leads in various horse race polls among Republicans, physician Carson will share with Trump the most powerful combination of favorable image and name identification among the candidates during the debate, Gallup said.

Trump's higher brand power is based on his near-universal name recognition among Republicans, but it's important to note that he has a weaker favorable score based on the fact that a relatively high percentage of those who know Trump view him unfavorably, according to Gallup.

The second Republican presidential debate is to be held Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. It will be spilt into two parts, with the pre-primetime debate featuring four lower ranking candidates and the primetime debate featuring the top 11 candidates. The first debate was held in Cleveland, Ohio on Aug. 6. Endit