The latest polling from Morning Consult released Wednesday, which was entirely conducted after the Iowa caucuses, shows that the state of the presidential race on both the Democratic and GOP sides has changed little since voting began.
On the Democratic side, the poll showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) by 16 points, 51 percent to 35 percent. Although Sanders lost in Iowa by a wafer-thin margin, this result shows only a slight increase in support for him nationwide compared to last week’s Morning Consult poll, in which Clinton beat him 51 percent to 31 percent.
On the Republican side, former reality-television personality Donald Trump led the Republican field at 38 percent, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came in second at 14 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) came third at 12 percent. Even in the face of Cruz’s upset victory in the Hawkeye State, Trump’s national lead remains stable relative to the two preceding Morning Consult polls. Cruz and Rubio have both registered small gains (up from 13 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in last week’s poll), but these have not been sufficient for either to break out of a bitter scrum for second place.
The lastest Morning Consult poll only differs from the majority of pre-Iowa nationwide polling in showing Rubio bearing down on Cruz. Many other polls had suggested Cruz was consolidating a second-place position before Rubio’s unexpectedly strong showing in Iowa.
The Morning Consult poll was conducted online from Feb. 2-3. Pollsters surveyed 719 Democrats with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, and 641 Republicans with a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
