Trump Tops Field In New Hampshire

Jarret Heil, who was first elected to that position in 2010, also happens to be president of the Iowa State County Treasurers Association and chairman of the Iowa Republican County Officials Association. And last weekend in Des Moines, the campaign opened “Cruz Camp, ‘ an old college dorm with 48 beds for volunteers coming in from across the country to stay for free while organizing locally for the campaign”. Results for the 364 likely Democratic primary voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points and for the 437 likely Republican primary voters it is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. Republican leaders from House Speaker Paul Ryan to former Vice President Dick Cheney have since condemned Trump’s remarks and said they represent neither Republican nor conservative principles. Cruz weighed in on the proposal while campaigning in SC, where he was asked if he would support a policy barring Muslims from coming into the United States.

Marco Rubio is in fourth place with 9 percent.

“I will support the Republican nominee against any Democrat because I feel the slate of Republican candidates are better than anything Democrats put up”.

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.

Trump’s challengers can still be hopeful, however, because only 18 percent of those polled are committed to their choice, Politico pointed out. Cruz leads among evangelicals (26%) followed by Trump (24%) and then Carson (20%). 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. “As Ben Carson’s stock has fallen, Cruz has been able to corral most of those voters”, said Patrick Murray, director of the New Jersey-based Monmouth University Polling Institute.

“Statistically, in Iowa, he’s moved to the front of this race”, King said of Cruz. Donald Trump went up 6 points to 32 percent. “Without this dynamic, the underlying fundamentals appear to favor Cruz and Rubio”, added Murray. Fifty-one percent of his backers say their minds are made up about him, compared to just a quarter of voters who support a candidate other than Trump.

Meanwhile, Dunn says the candidacy of Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, is nearing its end.

First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day’s most important political stories and why they matter. But with less than two months of the Iowa caucuses, Trump has not come close to the sparring that has defined his interaction with every other Republican candidate.