POLL: Cruz rises, Carson falls Click to Tweet
tedcruzfreeuse-300x1801

Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) is rising as Ben Carson falls — especially in Iowa, where the Feb. 1 caucuses are a pivotal test for conservative hopefuls in the 2016 race.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon with no political experience, had been one of the GOP presidential contest’s two surprising successes, alongside business mogul Donald Trump.

Since briefly swiping the lead away from Trump in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) national polling average in early November, however, Carson has lost about one-fifth of his support in national polls.Perhaps even worse, Carson has slipped behind Cruz in two recent polls in Iowa, where both men are seen as competing for the evangelical vote, which could also be crucial to victory in South Carolina’s Feb. 20 primary and in a host of other Southern states that will hold contests on March 1.

In Iowa, Cruz claimed 23 percent support in Quinnipiac University’s most recent poll — an 8 percentage point jump from a KBUR poll of Iowa taken exactly one month ago. Carson won 18 percent backing, a 10-point drop.

Cruz also placed second in a recent CBS News/YouGov poll in Iowa, with 21 percent.

The shift is significant enough for some longtime GOP activists in Iowa to believe that Cruz could now be the best-positioned of any candidate to win the caucuses.

TRENDING ON REVIVE AMERICA

“I think Ted Cruz has smartly positioned himself to take advantage of any reduction in support for either Carson or Trump,” said conservative Iowa activist Doug Gross. “With Carson fading and Trump’s support certainly capped, I think he is capturing the bulk of that, and would be the odds-on favorite to win the caucuses.”

Political observers widely agree that Carson has not had a good couple of weeks and that would-be caucusgoers could be drawn to Cruz because he can boast a worldview that is just as conservative as Carson’s.

“Most American presidents hold elective office before they get elected president,” said David Yepsen, who is director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University and covered the caucuses for decades as a reporter for The Des Moines Register. “These are caucus activists and they may be conservative, but they are party people. They are pragmatic enough about who they think has a chance to win. … A lot of them are starting to think with their head, not heart.”

Doubts about Carson’s preparedness to be president have become more acute since the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility.

In an interview shortly afterward with Chris Wallace of Fox News, Carson struggled to name the nations in the Middle East he would seek to recruit to an anti-ISIS coalition.

Later, when a reporter suggested that he had begun to slip in the polls because voters did not see him as the right would-be commander in chief during a time of increased terrorism, the candidate replied, “I would agree with that assessment. That’s why it’s a good thing it’s a marathon, not a sprint. As time goes on, they will begin to listen more carefully to what I’m saying”…

Source: Cruz rises, Carson falls | TheHill