Ted Cruz Holds 10-Point Lead Over Donald Trump in New Iowa Poll
Cruz holds 10-point Iowa lead over Trump, new poll finds.
— -- After Donald Trump has been the clear frontrunner in Iowa for nearly five months, there's a big shakeup underway in the state according to a new DMR/Bloomberg Politics poll that has Ted Cruz ahead of Trump by 10 points.
This is the second Iowa poll of likely Republican Caucus-goers in one week that has Cruz ahead of Trump in the Hawkeye state and was conducted before and after Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
Cruz led the field at 31 percent, up 21 percent since the last DMR/Bloomberg poll taken two months ago. Trump was up 2 percent over his showing in the poll two months ago at 21 percent. Ben Carson fell 15 percent from his showing in the October poll and was in third place at 13 percent. Behind the top three were Marco Rubio at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 6 percent.
Cruz quickly took to Twitter and reacted to his frontrunner status in the new poll.
Trump also took to Twitter, but cited his lead in the CNN/ORC poll released Monday that had him ahead in Iowa.
Cruz is gaining momentum in Iowa, seeing larger numbers at his events and increased fundraising. There's a growing consensus among Iowa's conservatives that they must elect someone this time around who can get past the early voting states, unlike the last two winners of the state's caucuses, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.
"I always expected that Cruz would do well in Iowa. Either win or finish in the top three," Richard Schwarm, the former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party told ABC News. "The Trump phenomenon took us all by surprise, but the Cruz phenomenon has not. I don't think he’s peaking too early."
Cruz's Iowa State Director Bryan English the new poll numbers show the campaign's work has paid off.
"While this is just one poll, these numbers are a testament to the ongoing hard work that our volunteers and Ted Cruz have put into building up our Iowa organization," he said.
In Des Moines Friday night, Trump anticipated the bad poll numbers by bashing the Des Moines Register.
"It's funny. Every time the Des Moines Register does a poll, I always do badly," he told the crowd at his town hall. "It's my opinion that they don’t do it properly because you know they poll like three or 400 people."
Trump has been waging war against the Register since the summer when the paper called for the billionaire businessman to drop out of the race.
"The Des Moines Register is the worst. They are the worst. The worst. They’re very dishonest," Trump said.
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