A Gallup survey released Thursday said the Arizona senator has 51 percent support among Republicans.

By comparison, in February 2004, when Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the presumptive Democratic nominee, he had 64 percent support in his party.

In the 2000 presidential race, when Vice President Al Gore was the assured Democratic nominee, he had 65 percent support. On the Republican side, George W. Bush had 57 percent support that year.

In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton had 71 percent support.

Gallup says McCain's current level of support is "relatively low compared with the support that presumptive nominees in either party have enjoyed since 1980."

Only Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984 had a lower level of support, 46 percent, when he was clearly the Democratic nominee, Gallup said.

McCain's standing is based on polling data collected from Feb. 10-12, including interviews with 1,002 Republican and Republican-leaning voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.