Sean Rayford/Getty Images
Donald Trump.
The NBC News/ Wall Street Journal survey found Trump with 25% support among Republican voters.
Republican neurosurgeon Ben Carson was close behind Trump, with 22% support.
Amid a crowded field, Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-Florida) 13% placed a distant third, followed by Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) 9% and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) 8%.
Trump's 25% support is up from 21% in September, when the pollster last went into the field. That improvement, though slight, is notable, as there's been increasing speculation that his support is plateauing, and the mogul has angrily responded to questions about when he might drop out of the race.
NBC's Carrie Dann noted that 59% of GOP voters "now say they can see themselves supporting Trump," compared to 47% who said the same in September. A slight majority also said they could not see themselves supporting Trump then, compared to 35% who said the same in the new survey.
However, Carson, Rubio, and a some of the other candidates posted even stronger upside potential by this measure.
"While Trump leads when GOP primary voters are asked about their first choice for the party's nomination, Carson boasts the highest share of voters who say they can see themselves supporting him," Dann wrote. "Seventy-four percent said that they can imagine backing Carson for the GOP nod, while just 20 percent said they could not."