Trump, Cruz
Trump, CruzReuters

A new poll on Wednesday found that Donald Trump is solidly in the lead of the Republican presidential race, although another survey released the day before found him to be nearly neck-and-neck with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Wednesday's CNN/ORC poll of Republican and Republican-leaning voters gave Trump 39% support, as opposed to Cruz's 18% which is in itself a two point jump from his showing in the last such poll in November.

Behind the two front runners, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Carson tied at 10%.

A day earlier on Tuesday, Quinnipiac University released a poll showing a much closer race between Trump and Cruz, giving the real estate mogul just a 28% to 24% lead over the Texan senator.

Following the two, according to the poll, were Rubio at 12% and Carson at 10%. However, the same poll found 50% of all voters would be embarrassed to have Trump as president, whereas 35% said they would be embarrassed to have Hillary Clinton president.

Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race according to the poll by a handy margin, enjoying a 61% to 30% advantage despite being mired down in investigations on suspicions of having shared classified information on her private email as secretary of state.

Trump just this week made yet another controversial statement, when he said Clinton got "schlonged" by Barack Obama in the 2008 race, using a Yiddish term for a man's genitals which he later claimed is not "vulgar."

Who won the debate?

CNN noted on Wednesday that the Quinnipiac poll is one of only two live interviewer national polls to be published since Thanksgiving that gave Trump anything under a 10 point lead. A full ten polls have been released since then, with Trump averaging a 16 point lead on Cruz.

Wednesday's CNN/ORC poll also asked Republican voters about the Republican debate last Tuesday, and found that 33% of those who watched said Trump had the best performance, followed by 28% for Cruz and 13% for Rubio.

Trump also held a sizable advantage in terms of impressions over his ability to handle a number of issues.

A full 57% felt Trump would be the best able to handle the American economy, followed by Cruz at 8% and Rubio at 7%. He led with 55% in terms of immigration, with Cruz at 15% and Rubio at 10%, and likewise in terms of dealing with Islamic State (ISIS) 47% supported Trump, 21% Cruz, and 7% backed Jeb Bush.

The CNN/ORC poll was conducted between December 17-21 via phone among a random group of 1,018 voters nationwide.