Cruz, who has made a point of not criticizing Trump, stopped short of condemning his proposal, as some in the GOP field swiftly did Monday afternoon.
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Murray said his model projected a record turnout, albeit much fewer caucus goers than CNN expected.
Trump focused on the survey that he won.
“This is an endorsement that simultaneously sends a signal to political observers and motivates active Caucus voters”, said Cruz. “That’s what it really boils down to”.
The poll, released Wednesday, was conducted Saturday through Tuesday evenings.
The independent poll was conducted December 3-6 of Iowa voters who say they are likely to attend the Republican presidential caucuses in February.
The favorable ratings indicate that is possible: Carson at 75 percent, Rubio at 66 percent and Cruz at 59.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) received one of the more sought after endorsements in Iowa.
Trump is in second place in the poll, with 19 percent, followed by Sen. Just 20 percent in the Monmouth poll said they were completely decided on their choice. He was judged the candidate best able to win the general election by 42 percent to 17 percent over Cruz and most effective at solving the country’s problems by 36 percent to 17 percent over Cruz.
That 18-point lead is compared to the 10-point lead he had over then, second-place Carly Fiorina. Dr. Ben Carson took the lead briefly a couple of months ago, when he surged to the head of the pack in Iowa, only to nearly immediately lose his footing. As he routinely does, Cruz chastised the media for egging on a fight with Trump, who the day prior said he would ban all Muslims from entering the USA given the surging threat from Islamic terrorism.
The landscape of the campaign has changed since the September poll, with foreign policy and national security taking a more prominent role.
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In the afternoon, the respected polling institute at Monmouth University released a poll that, for the first time, showed the Texas Senator winning the Iowa caucuses. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 954 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 402 who say they plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary. The shift is within the margin of sampling error. “Every one of us who is running is being assessed by the voters under that metric, and that is exactly why we have a democratic election to make that determination”, he said. Twenty-six percent in the CNN poll said they had definitely decided. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
