For what it’s worth, the poll was conducted by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling.

(TPM) — A new PPP poll released on Friday shows Donald Trump leading the Republican presidential primary race by much more than a hair.

In fact, the poll shows the brash real estate tycoon turned reality TV show host posting a large nine-point lead on the nearest competition. It’s the latest in a flurry of recent surveys to show the Donald running strong in the GOP field, but it’s the first to show him all alone at the front of the pack.

Trump garnered 26% of the vote, followed by Mike Huckabee (17%), Mitt Romney (15%), Newt Gingrich (11%), and Sarah Palin (8%.) Ron Paul earned 5%, while Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty took 4% each.

But despite Trump’s sudden sprint to the front of the field, his wide lead isn’t necessarily a sign of his strength so much as a sign of the weakness of the overall GOP field at this point.

As TPM noted earlier this week, only a handful of Republican candidates have strong name recognition, while others — notably Pawlenty, who is one of the few potential candidates to have already announced a presidential exploratory committee — are virtually unknown.