Trump, Cruz lead GOP field; support for Carson drops

Donald Trump called fellow GOP candidate Sen.

The front runner, whose comments on Muslims drew widespread criticism but might not dent his lead in several national public opinion polls, made a sarcastic reference to Mr Cruz’s respectful treatment of him. Texas’ 155 delegates are more than 10 percent of the total that a candidate needs to win the Republican nomination, though they will be awarded proportionally as opposed to winner-take-all.

Trump began targeting Cruz after The New York Times last week reported Cruz questioned the presidential qualifications of Trump and Carson in a closed-door session with campaign donors.

On Monday morning, Cruz and his supporters continued to downplay the spat and Iowa Rep. Steve King, who endorsed the senator, explained to CNN’s “New Day” that strategy.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is now the frontrunner in the first-in-the-nation voting state of Iowa, 10 points ahead of billionaire businessman Donald Trump, according to a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll released late Saturday.

The latest Des Moines Register poll has Cruz setting records by gaining record 21 points and leading Donald Trump 31%-21%.

Meanwhile, Cruz has more room than Trump to grow his support in Iowa.

Cruz is also behind Clinton in a general election match-up – albeit by a slimmer margin – as Cruz falling 3 points short of Clinton’s 48% support in the poll.

“She’s got no strength, she’s got no stamina, everything she does is like theatrical”, Trump said of Clinton, before mocking her recent statement about him that “I think he’s unsafe”.

The rise of Cruz is backed up by a Fox News poll of Iowa that found Cruz edging Trump 28%-26% with Rubio third at 13%.

Cruz’s state director in Iowa, Bryan English said much work was still to be done, but we can stay that the message is working.

However, when put up against current primary backburners Ben Carson and Marco Rubio, Clinton loses, according to the NBC poll. I do not believe either one of them will be our nominee or our president.

Since Friday, Trump has taken aim at Cruz for opposing ethanol subsidies and alienating his colleagues in the Senate.

Trump, who has a solid lead in national polls among Republicans, quickly tweeted about another survey.

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said: “What do you mean, hundreds of thousands?”