Donald Trump and Ben Carson remain locked in a virtual tie atop the 2016 Republican presidential field, but Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz both show signs of picking up steam.

The L.A. Times reports a new SurveyMonkey poll of 3,035 national voters finds Trump garnering 25 percent support, Carson at 21 percent and freshmen senators Rubio and Cruz at 12 percent each.

Data shows Rubio's rise appears fueled by his increasing popularity among college educated republicans, with him now leading the entire state of California in that demographic. Both Rubio and Cruz also appear to be gaining footing among those with more typical political backgrounds.

Across all of California, Trump leads the state with 20 percent of the vote, a point ahead of Carson with Rubio and Cruz at 14 and 12 percent respectively. Onetime party front-runner and former Florida governor Jeb Bush has now faded to just four percent support both nationally and in California.

Meanwhile, Trump has built a commanding lead among the less-educated wing of the party that has continued to hold largely based on all his tough anti-immigration rhetoric.

In his campaign launching speech, the outspoken business mogul branded Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and has since boasted if elected he could deport as many as 11 million immigrants in less than two years by simply practicing sound business judgment. Trump has also vowed to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out immigrants.

Trump later defended his rapist comment by reasoning, "Well, somebody's doing the raping. I mean, you know somebody's doing it."

A recent Associated Press poll found that just 11 percent of Hispanics view him positively. Despite the numbers, Trump has insisted he has "fantastic relationships" with Latinos.

"I think I will win with Hispanics when the word gets out," he recently boasted after protests broke out among that sector when NBC signed him to host a "Saturday Night Live" episode.