The Monmouth University Poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus goers released Monday found that 24% supported Cruz, followed by 19% backing Trump, 17% in the camp of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio comes in a close third with 17% and Ben Carson, who was beating Trump 32%-18% in the last Monmouth University poll, has fallen to 13% support. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson previously led the GOP field in support among this coveted demographic, but now earns just 15 percent support among evangelicals, putting him behind Cruz, Trump, and Sen.
Advertisement
After Cruz, the poll shows Donald Trump at 19%, Florida Sen.
“As Ben Carson’s stock has fallen, Cruz has been able to corral most of those voters”, said Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray. Carson briefly overtook Trump in October before seeing a substantial drop off in his support.
If Cruz wins Iowa and then cleans up in the SEC primary on March 1, he’s got an opportunity to put himself in a position to dominate the race.
Much of Cruz’s support stems from evangelical Iowans who back the conservative senator 30 percent to Trump’s 18 percent.
Cruz also has an edge among voters who call themselves tea party supporters. That is a fairly small sample, and the poll has a large margin-of-error equal to +/- 4.5 percentage points, which means that Trump, Carson, or Rubio could theoretically be in the lead adjusting for the poll’s margin-of-error in their favor.
Trump sits at 54 percent positive and 36 percent negative. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) at 4 percent, and businesswoman Carly Fiorina and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 3 percent a piece.
“And under no circumstances will I ever apologize for America”, Cruz goes on to say, staring straight into the camera.
Bush’s favorability rating is underwater at 38 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable. Only 20 percent said they have made a final decision on who they will vote for, which is essentially unchanged from the same poll in October.
Advertisement
The poll was surveyed 425 Iowa voters likely to attend the Republican presidential caucuses from December 3 to 6, 2015.
