One-time Iowa front-runner Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has taken a swan dive in Iowa, a state seen as a must win for his campaign, as Donald Trump and Ben Carson surge.
Trump, who leads the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, is at 27 percent in the crucial first GOP nominating contest, with Carson at 21 percent, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Friday.
Back in early July, Trump and Carson were tied at 10 points, with Walker leading the field at 18 percent. In this poll, however, as Carson and Trump soared, Walker fell to just 3 percent in the polls — or 10th place.
This is terrible news for Walker, a midwesterner who has pinned his hopes on winning Iowa, even shifting his position on immigration and ethanol subsidies to lure voters. The poll is representative of a broader downward trend for his campaign that comes as others do a better job capitalizing on an anti-Washington message which once fueled his candidacy. His decline accelerated after his weak debate performance last month. This news puts more pressure on him ahead of the Sept. 17 CNN debate.
Trailing Trump and Carson but ahead of Walker, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is at 9 percent; Jeb Bush is at 6 percent; Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are tied at 5 percent; and Mike Huckabee is tied with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., at 4 percent.
