Cruz tops Trump in shakeup of Iowa polls

Cruz, a USA senator from Texas, opened up a 10 percentage-point lead over businessman and reality television star Donald Trump in The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll released Saturday. Donald Trump – you’ve heard the name – continues to lead the Republican polls and stir up controversy, most recently by his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States following terror attacks in Paris and Southern California.

Turns out other United States presidential candidates are busy saying dumb things about the Middle East while we’re all focused on Trump.

“If we win Iowa, I think we’re going to win everything after that”.

Among the top four candidates in the poll, Cruz scores the highest on half of the 14 candidate attributes tested, with Trump winning the other half. This is the biggest leap in five caucus cycles, the newspaper’s records show. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is in fourth place with 10 percent. Jeb Bush has 6% – a 1% increase from two months ago.

“Three Republicans are tied at 3 percent: Paul, a watchdog for government overreach; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a torchbearer for Christian conservative morals; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a self-proclaimed messenger of hard truths”, Jacobs wrote.

The poll of 400 likely Republican caucus-goers was conducted December 7-10.

Trump went after Ted Cruz at a town hall event in Iowa Friday evening, accusing the Texas senator of being beholden to big oil companies because he opposes ethanol subsidies, which are deeply popular in this agricultural state. He blasted the poll in a tweet Saturday night, though he appears to have mistakenly said the paper was biased “towards” him instead of against his candidacy.

The attacks came after The New York Times reported that Cruz had questioned Trump’s judgment at a closed-door fundraiser, straining the rare detente between two of the race’s most outspoken candidates. Everyone else way down!

For Bernie Sanders, victory in Iowa’s kickoff presidential caucuses hinges on a simple proposition: that his message of political revolution will inspire people who typically stay home on that deep-winter night.

The Iowa caucuses are in 50 days. Just seven weeks from the first real votes in the long road of presidential caucuses and primaries. Cruz and his allies have so far spent very little money on advertising in Iowa, raising the prospect that his numbers could rise even more.

Cruz’s new front-runner status in Iowa has been accompanied by a jump in his favorability rating, now an all-time high of 73 percent, the highest in the Republican field.