The candidates who are struggling in single digits, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, have been more willing to blast Trump than those who are on the rise.
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CNN on Sunday announced the nine participants in the evening’s main event: Trump; retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson; Cruz; Sen. Rick Santorum, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham; and former New York Gov. George Pataki.
For the sixth consecutive month, the NY businessman continues to lead in almost every national poll, sometimes by daunting margins.
Reacting to news of Cruz’s gains, talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said December 7, if the senator wins in Iowa, “there are gonna be heart attacks and slit wrists in the Republican establishment and in the media”.
When the reports surfaced last week of Cruz at NY fundraisers questioning Trump’s judgement, Cruz promptly tweeted: “The Establishment’s only hope: Trump & me in a cage match”. Cruz has had an easy ride from Trump so far, but the front-runner has started to pointedly question the freshman senator’s readiness for the Oval Office. Will Cruz find a way to disagree while praising Trump personally, as he’s already done?
Trump also took aim at Cruz’s ties to big oil and his refusal to back ethanol subsidies, an important issue to Iowa voters, as ethanol production is responsible for thousands of jobs in the state.
Similarly, Levin said that calling Cruz a “maniac” means Trump is “lurching left” and “defending the GOP ruling class”.
But it is still too soon to say Mr Trump is the front-runner for the nomination.
“From what I’ve seen I don’t think it’s possible for Donald Trump to have a bad night”, Denton said. Ted Cruz, the co-front-runner in the state after four polls released in the past week show his surge. The Senator’s lead is also accompanied by the highest favorability rating in the GOP field at 73 percent.
Likewise, his promise to ban Muslims from the country was strongly opposed by 46 percent of respondents to the survey, for a total of 57 percent in opposition and 25 percent in support, with 17 percent they had no opinion.
Former Washoe County Republican Chair Sam Kumar agreed, but added each of the candidates didn’t necessarily need to pit themselves against each other on the issue. The lineup hasn’t changed much from the last debate, the main difference being the addition of Chris Christie thanks to his improving poll numbers in New Hampshire.
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Ted Cruz places second with 15% support, up 8 points from the previous Post/ABC poll. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Christie sounded poised to focus on national security and his background as USA attorney after the September 11 attacks. Among Trump voters 48% say they support the use of internment during World War II, to only 21% who say they oppose it. Overall just 29% of Republicans support that to 39% opposed, and supporters of all the other candidates are against it- 29/33 with Cruz voters, 23/54 with Rubio’s, 12/48 with Carson’s, and 13/56 with Bush’s. Rubio and Carson follow here as well, with 13% and 12% respectively, while Bush (5%) and Paul (4%) lag behind, trailed by four candidates at 2% each: Christie, Fiorina, Huckabee and Kasich. It’s a dynamic that has been the foundation of his unorthodox presidential campaign for months as he’s identified a rich seam in the Republican Party electorate that feels let down by its leaders and disgusted by what it sees as an epidemic of political correctness.
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