Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has lost his once-massive lead over rival Mitt Romney among Republican voters, according to a new poll, which reports that Gingrich slipped over the last ten days from a 14 point lead over Romney into a statistical tie.
“After enjoying 14- to 15-percentage-point leads over Mitt Romney in early December,” Gallup reports today, “Newt Gingrich is now statistically tied with Romney in national Republican preferences for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination: 26% for Gingrich vs. 24% for Romney. This follows a steady decline in support for Gingrich in the past 10 days.”
Gallup has been polling the presidential race since December 1, providing rolling averages every five days. Gallup notes that Gingrich’s national fall cannot be attibuted solely to the barrage of negative ads rolled out against him by the campaign of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and a superPAC that supports Romney.
“[E]ven though Republicans nationwide have likely not seen or heard these ads, they have toned down their support for the former speaker, once again moving Romney close to front-runner status — something he hasn’t had an undisputed claim on since July,” Gallup says, adding that “unfortunately for Romney, the sizable percentage of the vote put in play by Gingrich’s recent decline has not all gone his way, but instead has been scattered among the entire field.”
Although Gingrich’s fall would help Romney, the new poll “adds to the body of evidence that a segment of Republican voters want to nominate someone other than Romney.”
