US presidential primaries: Donald Trump trails Ted Cruz in new Wisconsin poll, reveals survey

Less than 24 hours before Wisconsin Republicans ballot in the state's primary on Tuesday, a new survey has said that New York billionaire developer Donald Trump trailed Texas Senator Ted Cruz by five points in the state.

According to the Emerson College Polling Society survey on Monday, Cruz garnered 40% of support compared to Trump's 35% among likely GOP voters there, Xinhua reported.

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The survey also found that Trump was viewed more unfavourably by Wisconsin's likely GOP primary voters than Cruz.

The survey was the latest in a series of recent polls which showed Trump trailing Cruz, sometimes by 10 points.

Mathematically, a win in Wisconsin would not make Trump's path to the party nomination, neither would his loss there break his chance. Only 42 delegates would be up for grabs in Wisconsin and the primary was not a winner-take-all one.

However, a loss in Wisconsin could be a big setback for Trump, since the state's blue-collar demographics along with voting rules allowing independent voters to cast ballots in the state primary were supposed to work in Trump's favour.

A loss there would also mean an even more precarious path for Trump to garner 1,237 delegates before the party convention in July.

According to the latest delegate count by the New York Times, Trump had so far won 735 delegates, 502 delegates short of the majority he needs to clinch the nomination.

Anti-Trump Republicans had already suggested that if Trump could be stopped at the first ballot at the nominating convention in July, there might be a chance to snatch the nomination from the New York billionaire developer at a contested convention.