Poll: Trump Nearly at 50 Percent Support Among Republicans Nationally

With just three candidates left in the Republican primary race, Donald Trump now holds 48 percent support of registered Republicans and Republican-leaners, according to the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll.

This is more than 20 points higher than his second-place competitor, Ted Cruz — who now enjoys 27 percent support. John Kasich got a boost of 2 points this week and holds third place with 18 percent support.

The question in the Republican race, however, is no longer whether Trump is the clear front-runner, but whether he will reach the magic delegate number of 1,237 — and, if not, whether Republicans will support him as their party's nominee going forward. These are big questions that have implications for the direction of the Republican Party and, ultimately, the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. 

There has been intense discussion about whether the 2016 presidential primary season has caused permanent harm to the Republican Party with "establishment" candidates like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio failing to gain traction and "outsider" candidates like Trump and Ben Carson performing well.

Although it is looking more and more certain that Trump will at least hold a plurality of delegates headed into the convention, not all Republicans agree that this means he should be the party's nominee if he fails to get a majority.

There has been intense speculation that Republican Party leaders may put forth a new candidate at the Republican convention if Trump fails to win the requisite number of delegates to secure the nomination. After Rubio's exit from the GOP race, former House Speaker John Boehner said, "If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above. They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above."

A majority — 57 percent — of registered Republicans and Republican-leaners disagree, however, and say that Trump should win the Republican nomination for president if he wins a plurality (but not necessarily a majority) of delegates. About a quarter (27 percent) do not think he should win the nomination and 14 percent are not sure.