A significant change in the complexion of the Iowa GOP caucus — and the broader presidential race — with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) now holding a commanding lead over Donald Trump, according to a new poll released Saturday evening by the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics.
Cruz is at 31 percent, Trump at 21 percent, and Carson has fallen all the way back to 13 percent .
This is the second straight poll that gives Cruz a lead in Iowa. A Monmouth poll last week showed him ahead of Trump 24-19, the first time Cruz had led in any poll of the Iowa GOP caucus. Within hours of the Monmouth poll coming out, Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
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The new survey is almost a mirror image of the last Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll, in October, with Trump essentially unchanged in second place while Cruz and Carson swapped the first and third place positions. Carson was at 28 percent then, and Cruz was at only 10 percent.
Cruz’s 21-point jump in two months comes as he made gains in solidifying the state’s evangelical vote, a key bloc in the GOP caucus going back decades.
The publicly chummy relationship between Cruz and Trump earlier in the race has given way to more direct attacks by each candidate on the other. Anticipating the bad poll news, Trump lashed out at Cruz earlier Saturday before the new poll was released. “Everything I say, he agrees with me. No matter what I say,” Trump lamented.
