It said the discrepancy could have been due to the different “screen” CNN incorporated in choosing which voters were likely to participate in Iowa’s caucuses.
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All the other candidates were in single digits in the new survey.
With the majority of GOP candidates clustered in the sub-10 percent range in the poll, it’s likely that between now and February there will be a consolidation of voters behind one or two candidates that will make Trump’s current domination of the field look less intimidating. Politico noted a Quinnipiac University poll exemplifying this last month, which gave Trump 25%, Carson 18%, and Cruz floated between them with 23%. Just two months ago, 36% of the evangelical vote was with Carson and 12% with Cruz. Rubio, the Florida senator, is the second choice of 20 percent of Republicans, and he’s also the only Republican with a “net favorability rating” that’s significantly better than Christie.
Rest easy, folks – if Donald Trump actually did win the GOP nomination for president, he will NOT win the race for the White House! Cruz is up 9 points on this question. He is mired at six or seven percent in Iowa and New Hampshire polls, and the only candidate above him whose fade he might benefit from is Rubio’s.
Chris Christie came in third place in the poll with nine percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ranked fourth with eight percent. That was more than double the 21 percent who chose the issue in September. Another poll released later Monday found Trump still has a healthy advantage over Cruz in the Hawkeye State. “Now we have Donald Trump and Ted Cruz”.
Cruz and Carson, who are widely viewed as the top contenders vying for the evangelical vote, are viewed less favorably than Trump among those voters in the Palmetto State.
The Republican presidential front-runner has a long history of positive comments about Democrats – he was one himself earlier in his life, he’s said – and Clinton specifically.
Cruz plans to end government subsidies for all forms of energy, claiming Washington should not be picking winners and losers in the market place.
Clinton’s edge on handling economic issues is smaller in Iowa than it is nationally, 47% in Iowa say they think Clinton would do the best job handling the economy while 42% say they trust Sanders most, while our recent national poll found Clinton holding a 58% to 31% advantage on the same issue.
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Four in ten Republicans say that Trump would be the most effective at solving the country’s problems and handle being commander-in-chief. For a guy who just dared the leader of the free world to “insult me to my face”, Cruz is showing impressive restraint. “I believe the focus should focus on radical Islamic terrorism, and we need to be directly focused on threats to the United States”.
