Republicans who hope to run for president in 2016 may need to start building name recognition now, because a new CNN/ORC poll shows many of them aren't well-known among potential voters, even other Republicans.
A full 45 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning independents who responded to the poll said they had never heard of Bobby, Jindal, the Republican Governor of Louisiana, who delivered the party's response to the 2009 State of the Union address and recently called on Republicans to "stop being the stupid party."
More than a quarter of those same respondents -- 26 percent -- said they had never heard of Marco Rubio, a Florida senator who delivered the official Republican response to this year's State of the Union address, and member of the Senate's "Gang of Eight" currently crafting a bipartisan immigration reform bill.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie fared a bit better, with only 19 percent of respondents unaware of who he is, after he garnered national recognition for collaborating with President Obama in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which hit New Jersey particularly hard just days before the 2012 presidential election.
Only 17 percent of respondents hadn't heard of Rand Paul, a number that surely decreased in recent weeks after Paul's 13-hour talking filibuster on the floor of the Senate to protest the Obama administration's refusal to rule out using unmanned drones against American citizens on U.S. soil.
Less than 10 percent of respondents were unaware of Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and brother of the former president, but recognition of the family name probably helps there. (It's also important to note that polls like this one make no determination about whether people are just saying they've heard of a politician, or if they're thinking of the right person).
As the most recent Republican vice-presidential candidate, it's to be expected that a full 93 percent of respondents knew of Paul Ryan. He also had the highest approval rating, but at this stage of the game, that's strongly correlated with name recognition.
So anyone hoping to win the nomination in 2016 needs to begin building a base now, especially when so few of the party faithful seem to be tuning in.
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