Donald Trump has opened up a commanding lead over his Republican rivals in the heated race to emerge as the party's official standard-bearer in the 2016 run for the White House.

A new CNN/ORC Poll now finds Trumps with 36 percent of the vote, more than two times that of closest challenger Ted Cruz, who now stands at 16 percent.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are the only other GOP candidates currently polling in double figures at 14 and 12 percent, respectively.

Those figures are largely in keeping with a recent online Latin Post poll, which found Trump at 33 percent, Cruz at 16 and Carson and Rubio at 12 and 10 percent, respectively.

Trump Surging

Data composed by CNN also shows the bombastic real estate mogul is up an impressive nine points over the last month, as his advantage of connecting with GOP voters on issues they deem as most important continues to pay dividends.

Trump holds huge margins on the questions of who GOP voters most trust to handle the economy (at 55 percent, he stands 46 percentage points over his nearest competitor), the federal budget (51 percent, up 41 points), illegal immigration (48 percent, up 34 points), ISIS (46 percent, up 31 points) and foreign policy (30 percent, up 13 points).

The poll was conducted before this week's deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, which were carried out by a man reported to have been radicalized and his wife, claiming the lives of at least 14 people.

Trump's gain has come at a loss for the likes of Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Since last month's poll, the three are down by an average of six points with Carson suffering the steepest slide at eight points.

GOP Voters Convinced Only Trump Can Win General Election?

The poll shows that 52 percent of Republican voters responded they see Trump as the candidate with the best chance of actually being able to chart a course to the Oval Office in 2016. After that, Rubio checks in at just 15 percent, while Cruz and Carson flounder even further behind at 11 and 10 percent respectively.

GOP Voters Rally Around Mass Deportation Efforts

Meanwhile, a whopping 47 percent of all GOP voters think the government should move on a plan advocated by Trump to deport some 11 million immigrants.

While 73 percent of all Republican voters admit the idea may not be practical, 44 percent believe it would be helpful to the economy and 30 percent insist it wouldn't hurt.