Trump, Carson, Fiorina lead GOP pack in Iowa
Three Republican presidential candidates who have never held elected office are leading the pack in the early-voting state of Iowa, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump, with 24 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, with 17 percent, and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, with 13 percent, take the top spots in Public Policy Polling’s newest survey of GOP primary voters in the Hawkeye State.
{mosads}The rest of the candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination register in single digits, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Fla.), at 8 percent each, and former Govs. Jeb Bush (Fla.) and Mike Huckabee (Ark.), at 6 percent apiece.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who dropped out of the GOP race Monday after falling dramatically in polls, takes 5 percent. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are at 4 percent.
Trump and Carson have led in the state by wide margins since shortly after the first GOP debate last month, and Tuesday’s poll gives Fiorina a bounce to fourth overall in the RealClearPolitics average of polling, placing her just behind Cruz in Iowa.
The polling occurred on the heels of the second GOP debate last week, during which Fiorina addressed Trump’s remark about her face. Nearly 6 in 10 GOP voters in Iowa, 59 percent, found Trump’s comment inappropriate, according to PPP. A majority of Iowa Republicans similarly found Trump’s remark about Bush’s wife during the debate inappropriate.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton maintains a healthy lead, with 43 percent, compared to 22 percent for rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 17 percent for Vice President Biden, who is considering entering the 2016 race.
Clinton leads Sanders among those who identify as “somewhat liberal,” 56 percent to 16 percent, and moderates, 38 percent to 16 percent, though Sanders leads among those who say they are “very liberal,” 49 percent to 33 percent, according to the left-leaning PPP.
The survey of 488 usual GOP primary voters and 494 usual Democratic primary voters was conducted Sept. 18-20 via landlines and Internet with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
