Donald Trump maintains a double-digit lead over the Republican field, but it’s shrinking. He is leading the polls in the state.
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As candidates crisscrossed the state, a burst of soggy snow became the latest obstacle standing between them and the coveted cohort of undecided New Hampshire voters.
While acknowledging her failure to connect with young Democratic voters so far, Clinton said, “They don’t have to be for me, I will be for them”.
Dominick Rubio, 7, joins his father, Sen. He has been taking increasing aim at Rubio on the campaign trail.
But when asked who is most likely to win the primary overall, only 27% of Republicans cite Trump, down 30 points from a poll conducted just days before caucus night. The debate rules left Carly Fiorina as the only candidate without a spot on stage.
The poll finds that about a third of likely GOP primary voters say they’re still trying to decide, just about double the share among likely Democratic voters.
But Trump’s lead has declined from a 19 point advantage in last week’s New Hampshire poll, to his current 13 point advantage over Rubio, according to the poll.
The “drop out” preferences reflect the Iowa outcome, with candidates who performed poorly higher on the list, which suggests a strong finish in New Hampshire could put a candidate back in Republicans’ good favors. The New Hampshire vote will test that assumption. That will be easier said than done since Cruz’s Iowa victory and Rubio’s media-fueled momentum will allow them to suck up much of the oxygen in the room. After Trump, Florida Sen. All week, he has called Rubio “the boy in the bubble”. Bush, campaigning with his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, summed up the Florida senator’s achievements in one word: “Nothing”.
Rubio, 44, has sought to shrug off the criticism as he has glided from diners to packed town hall meetings delivering his message of generational change. “People running say all kinds of things….” But at the end of the day, the people of Iowa spoke. Speaking of Cruz, as Mark Steyn and Ben Carson go nuclear on him for being ‘ dishonorable’ like Hillary on Benghazi (!), it appears as though his stock is temporarily up in Trump’s book. They are playing more to a national conservative audience, looking ahead to the SC primary and beyond.
Cruz, 45, has since apologized for the mistake his party had made, although the retired neurosurgeon told him that he should fire whoever was responsible. “It’s how this man truly feels”. Will the debate be on the issues or on Trump, who acknowledged this week that skipping the face-to-face debate to instead host a fundraiser for veterans’ organizations likely cost him votes?
Carson said he would judge Cruz’s complicity by how he treats the staffers who did it. He was actually going to move to New Hampshire no matter what the Iowa caucus results were.
Importantly, voters are not ready to count Donald Trump out. More than a third (36%) say they’ve ruled out Trump.
Rubio’s rise comes at the expense of other candidates, though. “The way you win a campaign is what you’re for, your heart and your brain, that’s what it’s really all about”, Kasich said.
In an interview this week aboard his campaign bus, Kasich said he thinks he can grow his support if he avoids a fight.
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He then shouted for his strategist, John Weaver, to join the conversation, and the governor declared proudly that he has not even come up with a zinger.
