Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is pulling away in a new poll. 
 
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 The real estate mogul dominates a new national CNN/ORC poll released Friday morning, leading by a whopping 20 percentage points after climbing 9 points since mid-October to 36 percent support. He's now more than doubled the support of his nearest rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz with 16 percent, Ben Carson with 14 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio with 12 percent. 
 
 This marks Trump's highest support and widest lead since he first announced his candidacy. 
 
 Chris Christie has the next highest support with just 4 percent. Jeb Bush dropped 5 points in the last several weeks to match Carly Fiorina with just 3 percent support. Mike Huckabee and John Kasich have 2 percent support and Rand Paul garnered 1 percent. 
 
 Ben Carson, plagued by questions over his past and doubts by voters on foreign policy in the wake of the Paris attacks, dropped 8 percentage points since mid-October. Meanwhile, Ted Cruz, focusing his efforts on the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, has climbed 12 points. 
 
 More than half of Republicans - 52 percent say Trump has the best chance of winning the general election in November, widely leading Rubio with 15 percent, Cruz with 11 percent and Carson with 10 percent. This comes despite Trump's low favorability ratings among independents in other polls. 
 
 Majorities of Republicans say Trump is the best candidate to handle the economy and the federal budget. He is also the most trusted candidate by far on illegal immigration and ISIS. 
 
 Trump is also the top candidate on foreign policy, though Cruz and Rubio trail him in that category by only 13 and 16 points respectively. 
 
 The GOP nomination horserace question in this poll followed several questions about illegal immigration and mass deportation, both staples of Donald Trump's campaign. 
 
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 (CNN) Donald Trump is once again alone at the top of the Republican field, according to the latest CNN/ORC Poll , with 36% of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents behind him, while his nearest competitor trails by 20 points. 
 
 Three candidates cluster behind Trump in the mid-teens, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 16%, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 14% and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 12%. All other candidates have the support of less than 5% of GOP voters in the race for the Republican Party's nomination for president. 
 
 Carson (down 8 points since October), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (down 5 points to 3%) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (down 4 points to 1%) have lost the most ground since the last CNN/ORC poll, conducted in mid-October. 
 
 Cruz (up 12 points) and Trump (up 9 points) are the greatest beneficiaries of those declines. Rubio is also up slightly, gaining 4 points -- an increase within the poll's margin of sampling error -- since the last CNN/ORC poll. 
 
 Republican voters are most sharply divided by education. Among those GOP voters who hold college degrees, the race is a close contest between the top four contenders, with Cruz slightly in front at 22%, Carson and Rubio tied at 19% and Trump at 18%. Among those without college degrees, Trump holds a runaway lead: 46% support the businessman, compared with 12% for Cruz, 11% for Carson and just 8% for Rubio. 
 
 Several other recent polls have shown Trump reclaiming a solid lead atop the GOP field after several weeks of near parity with Carson. But the new poll finds the businessman with both his broadest support and his widest lead in any national live-interviewer telephone poll since he announced his candidacy in June. 
 
 The poll reflects Trump's dominance over the rest of the field on the issues voters deem most important to them. He holds massive margins over other Republicans as the candidate most trusted to handle the economy (at 55%, Trump stands 46 percentage points over his nearest competitor), the federal budget (51%, up 41 points), illegal immigration (48%, up 34 points), ISIS (46%, up 31 points) and foreign policy (30%, up 13 points). 
 
 Looking at those Republicans who consider each issue to be "extremely important" to their vote, Trump's standing on each issue is even stronger. Among those Republican voters who call the economy extremely important, for example, 60% say they trust Trump to handle that issue. Among immigration voters, 55% trust Trump on the issue. On foreign policy, Trump inches up to 32%, and among those who call terrorism an extremely important issue, 49% say they trust Trump most on ISIS. 
 
 The poll was conducted before the shootings in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday, carried out by a man reported to have been radicalized and his wife. 
 
 More generally, about 4 in 10 Republicans say Trump is the candidate who would be most effective at solving the country's problems (42% name Trump, 14% Carson, 12% Cruz, 10% Rubio) and could best handle the responsibilities of being commander-in-chief (37% Trump, 16% Cruz, 11% Carson and 10% Rubio). 
 
 And a majority of Republican voters say they see Trump as the candidate with the best chances to win the general election next November (52% say Trump has the best chances there, compared with 15% for Rubio, 11% for Cruz and 10% for Carson). 
 
 On immigration, an issue that has been a focal point of Trump's campaign, most Americans say the government should not attempt to deport all people living in the country illegally (63%), and even more say such a mass deportation wouldn't be possible (81%). About half say such an effort would be harmful to the economy (47%), while about 3 in 10 say it would help (29%). 
 
 Among Republicans, a narrow majority (53%) think the government should try to deport all of the estimated 11 million immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally, but most think it wouldn't ultimately be possible to achieve (73%). Republicans are more likely than others to see a deportation effort as helpful to the economy (44% think it would help, 30% that it would hurt). 
 
 There's a sharp divide among Republican voters on these questions about deportation between those who back Trump and those who do not. Among Trump supporters, 67% say the government should attempt to deport all people living in the country illegally, while just 39% of Republican voters backing other candidates agree. Still, even among Trump's supporters, most say it wouldn't be possible to deport all those living in the U.S. illegally (55%). 
 
 Republican voters remain more enthusiastic about voting than their Democratic counterparts, but the gains in enthusiasm that had emerged through October appear to have stalled. 
 
 The CNN/ORC Poll was conducted by telephone November 27 through December 1 among a random national sample of 1,020 adults. Interviews were conducted with 930 registered voters, including 445 who are Republicans or independents who lean toward the Republican Party. For results among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
– Last week's dip in poll numbers was apparently no indication of things to come for Donald Trump. A new CNN/ORC poll shows the Republican contender with his biggest lead yet: 36% of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents support him, while his next-closest opponent, Ted Cruz, sits 20 percentage points back at 16%. Ben Carson continues to fall and sits in third at 14%, followed by Marco Rubio at 12%. The rest of the Republican candidates didn't hit 5% support. Chris Christie sits in fifth with 4%, while Jeb Bush fell 5 points down to 3% since the last CNN/ORC poll in mid-October, reports ABC News. The poll looks at how voter education plays a role: Cruz leads with 22% support among GOP voters with college degrees, while Trump sits fourth with 18%. However, Trump leads by a mile among voters without degrees. He has 46% support, compared to Cruz's 12%. Trump is also leading on most issues. He's at least 30 points up on any GOP candidate when it comes to the economy, federal budget, illegal immigration, and ISIS. All told, 52% of respondents say he has the best shot of winning the election. This latest poll surveyed 1,020 adults from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, and Trump only expects his numbers to climb in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, which happened Dec. 2. "Whenever there's a tragedy … my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country, we have weak, sad politicians," he tells CNN, per the Hill.