Donald Trump still leads the pack in the Republican race in a recent poll conducted ahead of the Illinois primary on March 15.

Figures reported by Breitbart indicated that while Trump leads his rivals ahead of the primaries, his lead has narrowed to 10 percent from the 17 point margin he enjoyed only late last month.

According to the report, 32 percent of those surveyed favored Trump as opposed to other Republican hopefuls Ted Cruz (22%), Marco Rubio (21%) and John Kasich with 18 per cent.

Despite being a polarising figure among Christian voters, Trump led other candidates and tallied 46 percent of voters in the state who identified as evangelical or born again Christians against Ted Cruz, the conservative senator who has been batting for faith based voters who only logged 25 percent in the group, reported Chicago Tribune.

Among those who consider themselves very conservative, Cruz had the advantage over Trump – 36 per cent to Trump's 28 per cent. Rubio posted 19 per cent while Kasich trailed at 9 per cent.

Of those who consider themselves fairly conservative, Trump posted 36 per cent to 21 per cent for Rubio. Cruz posted 18 per cent while Kasich followed closely at 17 per cent.

Surprisingly, despite accusations of discrimination against women, he also led the poll among women in the state as he logged 30 percent, leading Rubio by 8 points. Among white suburban women, Trump widened the lead to 38 percent over Rubio's 22 percent.

Overall, Kasich is the most favorably viewed among the four Republican candidates with 54 percent, followed by Rubio with 51 percent. Cruz posted 48 percent while Trump trailed the others at 46 percent.

When asked what was the most important trait that voters are looking for in their candidate, of those surveyed, 26 percent said moral character was most important, followed by 18 percent each who said not having an insider candidate or winning in the fall.

An additional 17 percent said having a true conservative candidate was most important, while 15 percent cited experience as a key trait they wanted in a candidate.