A new poll shows Texas Sen.
Advertisement
As is the case nationally, Trump holds big advantages as the candidate more trusted to handle the economy and illegal immigration, with smaller though still substantial leads on handling ISIS and foreign policy (30% Trump to 21% Cruz, 13% Rubio and 9% Bush).
“This marks the first time Ted Cruz has held a lead in any of the crucial early states”, said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
After Cruz, the poll shows Donald Trump at 19%, Florida Sen.
Likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire named national security as their chief concern ahead of the 2016 presidential election. On Saturday, five GOP candidates addressed the Rising Tide Summit in Cedar Rapids, one of the last multicandidate events in Iowa before voting begins. Monmouth University just put out a poll showing that Ted Cruz has passed Donald Trump and is now the GOP frontrunner in the Hawkeye State.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Carson round out the top four with 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively.
Cruz last month won the endorsement of conservative U.S. Rep. Steve King, the leading opponent of any congressional efforts to allow the 11 million unauthorized immigrants to remain in the U.S. legally. Almost 20 of respondents said that King’s endorsement made them more likely to support Cruz.
Evangelical voters, who make up a strong majority of Iowa caucus-goers, have moved behind Cruz, who now has a two-to-one lead over Carson among this influential block.
Two months ago, the retired neurosurgeon was in first place in Iowa.
Like Cruz, he appears to have improved his standing with Iowa voters, increasing his support by seven percentage points since the last poll, up from 10 percent in October. And he is the second choice of only 5 percent of Iowa caucus-goers.
Advertisement
The Monmouth poll was conducted from December 3-6 with 425 likely Republican caucusgoers and carries a +/- 4.8 percent margin of error.
