For Cruz, the poll represents a massive 21-point jump from a survey conducted by the two outlets in October.
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Cruz, a USA senator from Texas, opened up a 10 percentage-point lead over businessman and reality television star Donald Trump in The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll released Saturday.
In Des Moines, Trump dismissed the poll, done by Monmouth University, as “just one little outlier”.
“We want to win Iowa so bad because if we win Iowa, I think we run the table, I really do”, Trump told about 2,000 cheering Iowans who packed the Varied Industries Building at the Iowa State fairgrounds for a Friday evening rally.
With seven weeks to go till the February 1 caucus and Cruz hot on his trail, Trump made sure Iowans knew how important their state is to his campaign. The rally was Trump’s first opportunity to publicly address rival Ted Cruz’s backroom sniping at Trump, even as he desperately makes nice in public.
Donald Trump (L) and Texas Sen.
On ethanol, Mr. Trump suggested Mr. Cruz was hypocritical for opposing federal support for that fuel, a major Iowa industry, while backing tax breaks for oil companies.
“Another 20 percent of likely caucusgoers say he’s their current second choice for president”. The margin of error is 4.9 percent.
Trump has already tweeted telling his followers “don’t trust the Des Moines Register poll” because it’s “biased toward Trump!” And Trump told the Iowa voters then to get him back to the top, pleading, “Will you get the numbers up, Iowa, please?”
Cruz has spent 13 days been in Iowa since the beginning of October and had over 40 events.
The uncomfortable part of this for the media and the Republican establishment has been finding out just how wide and deep the reservoir of nativist white resentment is in their party’s electorate.
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump sent two threats via Twitter to Senator Cruz on Friday morning.
Trump and Cruz have refused to attack each other over the course of the Republican campaign, as each appeals to the same disaffected GOP voters. “Because that’s very anti-Iowa”, Trump said, to applause.
Mr. Cruz, whose father, Rafael Cruz, emigrated from Cuba and is a fiery evangelical pastor, has succeeded more than any other candidate in enlisting conservative Christian support in Iowa.
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The Cruz campaign has called The New York Times report misleading and in an appearance on Fox News on Thursday, Cruz insisted his comments were not specifically about Trump, despite clearly referencing the candidate in the audio. “If Trump were to get out, his supporters are ideologically across the map, so you would assume that to the extent his supporters might show up and vote, they could be split six different ways”.
