Trump Consolidates Lead as Carson Sinks in Polls

The Prince William County fairgrounds in Manassas, Virginia, rocked with energy as roughly 2,500 people gathered to hear a speech from Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. Marco Rubio is at 12%.

With less than 60 days before the leadoff presidential caucuses, Republican candidates traversed Iowa Saturday trying to convince voters to back them for the presidential nomination. The Quinnipiac poll has Trump at 27%, with 17% for Rubio, 16% for both Carson and Cruz, while former Florida Governor Jeb Bush bringing up the rear with 5%.

Cruz is now in a statistical tie with real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who is the preferred candidate of 25 percent of likely caucus participants. Rubio is also up slightly, gaining 4 points – an increase within the poll’s margin of sampling error – since the last CNN/ORC poll.

While Rubio has at least done his share of pressing the flesh, posing for selfies, and engaging one on one with voters, Trump has opted instead for larger, more impersonal rallies where voters are kept at a distance.

Last month, Trump had 24 per cent, with 23 per cent for Carson.

On that night this week, the crowd seemed to sense Trump is different than most politicians – and believe him to be a bolder, more independent leader capable of doing what is necessary to make America a better country.

“If you are going to kill 15 people, do you think a control law is going to stop you?” said Rand Paul.

Alex Wong/Getty Images Republican candidate Ben Carson struggled to pronounce the name of the terror group Hamas, calling it “hummus”. The oldest president to date was Ronald Reagan, who was almost 70 when he took office, and most presidents start the job in their 50s.

Cruz showed that focus in a new TV ad airing in Iowa, in which he says, “Every Islamic extremist will know, if you wage jihad against us, you’re signing your death warrant”.

Nevertheless, the businessman won the trust of GOP voters on key issues for the nation’s future.

Front-runner Donald Trump was at a rally in Spencer where he urged supporters to do all they can to make it to the caucuses on February 1.

Trump also energetically called for Americans to have increased access to guns following the recent mass shooting in California and again cast suspicion on the relatives of those shooters, saying they should face “a big, big price”.

Chatting with reporters before a candidate forum in Cedar Rapids, Cruz stated Republican voters are beginning to coalesce behind his candidacy.

“Visas are a problem and we have to look at that and see what we need to do to tighten up requirements and do better”, she said. About half say such an effort would be harmful to the economy (47%), while about 3 in 10 say it would help (29%).

All other candidates have the support of less than 5 percent of Republican voters. Still, even among Trump’s supporters, most say it wouldn’t be possible to deport all those living in the USA illegally (55%).

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes this morning that the campaign is still in the “casual attention stage” and compared it to a recent rug-shopping experience he had – a very Trump-like pink rug temporarily caught Brooks’ eye until “a subtler and more prosaic blue rug grabbed center stage”. But he’s still ahead in the December polls, a signal that has boded well for GOP candidates in the past.