Posted on 01/11/2016 11:36:05 AM PST by Sybeck1
Donald Trump leads Ted Cruz by 2 percentage points in a new poll from Iowa, suggesting a tightening presidential race ahead of the state’s Feb. 1 caucuses.
Trump leads the GOP field, with 31 percent support, in Quinnipiac University's new poll, followed closely by Cruz's 29 percent. That slim lead is within the poll’s 4-point margin of error.
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Voters view Cruz more favorably than they view Trump, however, and more are open to the possibility of voting for him, according to the new findings. This is only the third poll of the last 11 in Iowa in which Trump is on top, according to aggregation by RealClearPolitics. Other recent polls have shown Cruz in first place.
Trump in the last week has stepped up attacks on Cruz’s birthplace. Cruz was born in Canada, and Trump argues Democrats could make a case that he is not qualified to be president because he is not a natural born citizen.
Cruz was born to an American mother, and his campaign has argued he is qualified to be president just like 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal zone. Legal experts have long agreed that the Constitution's natural born citizen requirement includes those born to U.S. citizens outside the country.
In the poll, Cruz won more than one-third of the support of white, evangelical Republicans, an important constituency for him that typically makes up the majority of GOP caucusgoers. Trump attracted 27 percent with that group, and Marco Rubio received 13 percent, but other candidates won more than one-tenth of the evangelical vote.
Cruz outperformed Trump among people with college educations, with an income between $50,000 and $100,000, and who consider themselves very conservative. On the flip side, Trump did better among those without a college degree, and those making less than $50,000 and more than $100,000.
Trump will win, with Cruz a close 2nd.
What is Cruz’s next act if he doesn’t win Iowa?
I put money on it!
He'll take Huckabee's old slot on Fox News; he'll be playing guitar, BBQing, selling miracle financial cures.
Trump played this just right too, not raising expectations like someone else did.
Egg could go on one guy’s face. It won’t be Trump’s even if he loses.
If the other guy doesn’t, there’ll be a serious ouch moment.
Somebody call 911.. VinL is gonna need immediate treatment.
Cruzers tell me that Ted has this wrapped up. That he's got the best ground game since the 1972 Miami Dolphins and will overwhelm the Trump forces. Not to mention those "evangelicals" who will come to caucus for Ted even if it's eighty below zero with ten feet of snow on the ground. We shall see. But the expectations have been set so high by them that anything less than a resounding Cruz victory will be seen by the rest of us as a crushing defeat.
Meanwhile, Trump has been flying in there with his big plane and speaking to 10,000 people at a time including thousands of others at home struggling to find a decent live feed on YouTube. But we are told that going to rallies and going to caucus are two different things. Maybe all the people who went to the rallies are going to sit home and catch up on "Walking Dead" on Netflix. Who knows.
I'll say this. If Trump and Cruz manage to combine for over 60 per cent of the vote between them, it's pretty much all over for the GOPe candidates Jebbie Bush and Marco Rubio.
Bernie Sanders...look for him to do to Bill Clinton's WINO what Obama did to her eight years ago.
Not surprised....Trump is all over the news every second of the day. He’s way more savvy than I thought he was.
Trump numbers are understated for a variety of reasons.
He and his wife can go back to being legal GOPhers for Bush clan.
‘Zactly...
That is nasty. The GOPe would rather have trump than Cruz. Slamming Cruz will not make anyone like Trump more. I have always had trump my second choice, but now I am getting doubts about that. Trump and many of his supporters are poor winners.
Yeb is going to pull into the lead at the last minute and win!
Yeb is the inevitable winner. He has spent over $30 Million telling us so.
That’s nasty? Was it not true?
Or does truth sound nasty to those who hate truth?
Y'know, that is a really funny statement.
Because it exposes just how ignorant its writer is about the non-existent Bush-Cruz relationship.
Yes, Cruz was active in the GWB campaign. But, no, Cruz is not part of the "Bush team". Cruz ran against and defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst -- part of the Bush establishment -- for the Senate job. Further, GWB has been quoted expressing his personal dislike of Cruz.
Accordingly, you might want to retract your statement...
Let's save some venom for Hillary, ok?
Seriously, right now none of the Republican candidates are polling above 50% (not even Trump). That means that whichever candidate you are supporting, he is going to have to change the minds of some non-supporters to get the nomination. He is then going to have to win the support of most or all of the remainder of his non-supporters to beat Hillary.
You do not win over supporters by attacking them. Have any bitter conservatives out there been convinced to stop clinging to their guns and religion because of Obama's non-stop attacks?
What you said equating Cruz with the GOPe and Bush and Huckabee was not the truth just a nasty wise-crack./ Now Trump can start bragging about his Iowa poll numbers and quit attacking that “foreigner” Cruz. Anyway, there’s a long way to go till late summer. When Trump has over 50 per cent, you can all toot his horn.
” When Trump has over 50 per cent, you can all toot his horn.”
Does that work for Cruz fans as well?
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