Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is maintaining his lead over real estate magnate Donald Trump in the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll of the Iowa Republican presidential contest released Wednesday morning.
Cruz polled at 25 percent, closely followed by Trump at 22 percent. The mid-December Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll showed Cruz with a 10-point lead over Trump.
When asked if their choices were firm, 42 percent of respondents said their mind was made up, but 56 percent “could still be persuaded.” But among Cruz’s supporters, 51 percent of Cruz’s supporters said their mind was made up. Trump’s supporters were even more sure: 64 percent said their choice was made.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) took third at 12 percent. This is a 2-point jump for the freshman senator. Rubio has made small gains like this since the August version of the poll.
He’s followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 11 percent. These results continue a decline in Carson’s support in Iowa. He peaked at 28 percent in the October iteration of this poll; he dropped to 13 percent in December.
No other candidates polled above 5 percent.
The Iowa caucuses are Feb. 1.
The poll was conducted among 500 likely Republican caucusgoers from Jan. 7-10 by Selzer & Co. in Des Moines by telephone. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percent.
