Iowa is a crucial state for any Republican presidential hopeful looking to become the nominee. Here are some important takeaways from the new Quinnipiac University survey for May.
1) Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is on top: He leads the Iowa Republican Caucus with 21 percent of likely caucus participants. Though he is the clear leader in May, he did have 25 percent in the same February poll.
2) Second place is a messy race: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida each have 13 percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 12 percent and former Arkansas Gov Mike Huckabee — who just launched his presidential campaign — garners 11 percent. Importantly, Rubio and Cruz were the biggest gainers, gained 9 and 7 percentage points from February to May, respectively.
3) Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (7 percent) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (5 percent) have noticeably faltered since February, when they both had double-digit support from likely GOP caucus participants.
4) One in four (25 percent) caucus-goers would “definitely not support” Bush should he be the candidate. Twenty percent think this of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, followed by Paul, who gets 10 percent.
5) Rubio gets the best favorability rating: 69 percent have a favorable opinion him compared to 9 percent who do not. Sixty-five percent say his positions on the issues are “about right,” also the best in the GOP field.
6) Walker has a high favorability rating (59-11), while Bush is the only GOP candidate with a negative favorability rating (39-45).
The phone survey of roughly 667 likely Iowa Republican caucus participants was conducted April 25-May 4 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
