The Hill News

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) "surged" to second place among Republicans' choice in a presidential nominee, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) remains the clear leader of the pack, according to a new Quinnipiac Poll; 25 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said they would like to see Romney win the nomination.

But Bachmann checks in at 14 percent, good enough for second place. That's a significant jump in her standing over last month, when just six percent named the Tea Party darling as their choice in an early June Quinnipiac Poll.

Those numbers would seem to only reinforce the emerging narrative in which Bachmann has leapfrogged much of the GOP field since announcing her campaign in June, and campaigning aggressively, w! ith a red-meat conservative message, since then.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is in third, at 12 percent, followed by another candidate who's enjoyed a surge in the past month: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). After not having even been included in past months' polls, 10 percent of Republicans said they would like to see Perry, who's considering a late entry into the race, to win the nomination.

Of course, there have been plenty of boomlets in polling the Republican presidential primary so far this cycle. Perhaps as a reminder of the race's fluidity, 12 percent of Republicans named Donald Trump as their choice in a nominee in May's Quinnipiac poll.

Electability versus President Obama, as always, remains an issue for the presidential contenders. Romney fares best against the president, a figure consistent with most national polling of the race to date.

If the election were held today, Romney would lose, 47-41 percent. Obama woul! d beat Bachmann, 50-38 percent, top Perry, 50-37 percent, and ! best Pal in, 53-44 percent.

The poll found that Americans are still divided, at 47 percent apiece, about whether Obama deserves reelection, a number unchanged since last month.

The poll, conducted July 5-11, has a 3.2 percent margin of error for Republican primary voters, and a 2 percent margin of error nationally.