Elections 2016 Polls: Ahead Of Super Tuesday Donald Trump Gains In Georgia, Tennessee

UPDATED 11:50 a.m. EST — A CBS poll confirmed Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's strong lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders among likely Democratic voters ahead of Tuesday's primary votes. Clinton held a 20 point lead over Sanders among likely Democratic primary voters in Georgia, Virginia and Texas, according to CBS, and the widest spread was in Georgia where she held 63 percent of support among prospective voters, where Sanders lagged with 35 percent.

Original Story:

Republican front-runner and businessman Donald Trump continued to make gains in Georgia and Tennessee ahead of primary elections Tuesday, as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton maintained a nearly two-to-one lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in those same states, according to polls conducted by NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and Marist released Sunday. The results from the poll of three of the so-called Super Tuesday states indicated Sen. Ted Cruz was leading only in his home state of Texas.

Trump held a seven-point lead in Georgia, with 30 percent support from likely Republican voters, as Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio held a tie for second place with 23 percent support. The spread was wider in Tennessee, with Trump leading with 40 percent and Rubio trailing nearly 20 points behind at 22 percent. Cruz led his home state of Texas with 39 percent of prospective Republican voters polled by NBC.

Real estate mogul Trump recently found himself at the center of controversy, after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney urged the GOP front-runner to release his tax returns. Romney insinuated that something shocking would be contained in the documents, and Trump continued to refuse to release them.

“I’ve been audited for many years. It’s very unfair. The IRS always audits me; eventually I settle it out,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Saturday, adding. “I have friends that are very rich; they don’t even know what I’m talking about. They’ve never been audited. How come I’m audited every year?”

In the Democratic camp, Clinton maintained strong leads over Sanders in all three of the states polled by NBC, seeing 64 percent support in Georgia, 60 percent in Tennessee and 59 percent in Texas. The former New York senator led Sanders by a wide margin, with his support among prospective primary voters at 30 percent, 34 percent and 38 percent in Georgia, Tennessee and Texas respectively.

The polls were conducted Feb. 18-25 among 381-665 primary voters in each party in each state, with margins of error of 3.8-5 percent, across the states and parties.