Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running neck-and-neck in Iowa, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey of the Hawkeye State released hours before the next GOP presidential debate.
PPP finds Trump polling first with the support of 28 percent of respondents, followed by Cruz at 25 percent, Marco Rubio at 14 percent, Ben Carson at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 7 percent. No other candidate clears a 3 percent polling threshold.
Since PPP’s last survey of the race, Cruz has the most momentum, but Trump, Rubio and Bush are all on the rise, too. Carson has lost the most ground.
“Ted Cruz’s momentum in Iowa is getting all the attention, but Donald Trump is on the upswing there as well,” said Dean Debnam, Public Policy Polling president, in a statement. “Donald Trump’s supporters agree with every extremist view he’s put forth in this campaign. So it’s not a surprise that the latest controversy doesn’t seem to be hurting him at all.”
Trump’s three-percentage point lead over Cruz falls within the poll’s 4.3-percentage point margin of error, making the two statistically tied in Iowa. PPP surveyed 522 “usual Republican” voters from Dec. 10-13. Cruz leads Trump among voters whose primary concern is electing a conservative, but Trump leads Cruz among respondents who want a candidate that can beat the Democrats.
Other findings from the poll include that “Cruz is the most broadly popular” candidate and he is “the most frequent second choice of Iowa voters.” Carson, however, has not just lost support but his image has been tarnished with Republican caucus-goers — his combined first and second choice support has dropped from 40 percentage points to 22 percentage points in the newest poll.
The GOP presidential candidates will meet in Las Vegas on Tuesday night for another debate on CNN. The last two Republicans to win the Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, will appear in the undercard debate before the main event starts.
