Donald Trump Ahead 18 Points in New Hampshire, Marco Rubio Takes Second

The poll also showed that Carson’s support from Iowa evangelicals dropped from a commanding 36 percent in October to a current level of 15 percent. Hillary is defeating every other GOP candidate in hypothetical head-to-head polls, including Ted Cruz (51% to 44%), Jeb Bush (49% to 45%), Marco Rubio (48% to 45%), and Ben Carson (48% to 47%). Ted Cruz (Texas) questioned whether Donald Trump has the “judgment” to be commander in chief and said that he would not be comfortable with Trump having his “finger on the button”.

The support of the “faithful” or evangelical voters, who make up a strong majority of Iowa caucusgoers, may be key to Cruz’s performance in the February 1 caucuses.

Cruz has been on the rise recently, and his performance in the Monmouth poll was better than in late October, the last time the West Long Branch, New Jersey-based poll surveyed Iowa Republicans.

While Trump may be leading in support, the poll found that overall, 64 percent of voters are either scared or concerned with the notion of a Trump presidency. For results among the sample of GOP primary voters, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. That was nearly twice the votes claimed by the second-place finisher, U.S. Sen.

On immigration, 45 percent chose Trump as the candidate best able to handle the issue, with Rubio second at 14 percent and Bush third at 11 percent. Bernie Sanders by 20 percentage points.

“I am greatly honored by the results of the CNN poll in Iowa”, he tweeted Monday.

Trump revived talk Tuesday of an independent run when he highlighted on Twitter a USA Today/Suffolk University poll that shows 68% of his supporters would back him, rather than the GOP nominee.

According to the Texas Tribune, when reporters pointed out that Trump included Muslim Americans in his remarks, Cruz said, “I’m going to focus on the language I use”. Half (50%) now call that a top issue, up from 21% in September, while the previous top issue – jobs and the economy – is now the most important issue for 18% of likely Republican primary voters. “It would be four, eight more years of Obama, who is a very good man but I just don’t think he was quite ready for the job”. CNN, the debate sponsor, said it would seat candidates averaging at least 4 percent in either Iowa or New Hampshire, or at least 3.5 percent nationally.

The former “Apprentice” star, meanwhile, might need to worry about the 26 percent of New Hampshire Republicans who told pollsters that they not vote for him “under any circumstance”, the political publication added.