Poll: Cruz Top Pick of Republican Voters for 2016

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's efforts to defund Obamacare is paying off politically as he is now the top choice of Republican voters for president in 2016, according to a new poll released Friday.

In a survey taken by Public Policy Polling (PPP)  from Sept. 25-26 of 743 Republican primary voters, 20 percent now say that the Texas Republican is their pick to lead the party in the 2016 presidential election — gaining eight points since the last PPP poll taken in July.

Cruz made a valiant effort beginning Tuesday afternoon until midday Wednesday when he talked for almost 22 hours in attempt to convince his fellow senators to defund Obamacare even if it meant a government shutdown, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from several GOP lawmakers.

According to the PPP survey, Republicans support a government shutdown over Obamacare 64 percent to 20 percent. However, in a recent CBS News/New York Times Poll, 75 percent of Republicans said that they did not think politicians should use the threat of a government shutdown as a negotiation tool.

Urgent: ObamaCare Is About to Strike — Are You Prepared?

After Cruz, seventeen percent of Republican voters said they would vote for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to represent the party in the 2016 presidential election, 14 percent for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 11 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 10 percent for both Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, four percent for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and three percent each for both former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. The potential GOP contenders are split on the issue of defunding Obamacare at the risk of shutting down the government.

Among 'very conservative' voters Cruz gets 34 percent of the vote, but only four percent from moderates in the party. The New Jersey governor leads the moderates with 34 percent of the vote.

Republicans now view Cruz as the leader of the party more than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and former 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. Forty-nine percent to 13 percent of GOP voters say they trust the Texas Republican more than McConnell. When matched up against Boehner, Cruz earns more trust than the Speaker, 51 percent to 20 percent. And Cruz beats McCain 52 percent to 31 percent as more trustworthy.

"Ted Cruz this week established himself as the grassroots hero of the Republican Party," said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. "The party base has a lot more faith in him than their more official leaders like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner."

Urgent: ObamaCare Is About to Strike — Are You Prepared?