Ted Cruz in a minute
Ted Cruz has taken a slight lead in a new Iowa poll de-throning Donald Trump as the Hawkeye state front-runner for the first time this election among likely Republican Caucus-goers.
In Monday's Monmouth University Poll, Ted Cruz received 24 percent of the vote with Donald Trump in second place with 19 percent followed closely by Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Dr. Ben Carson finds himself in fourth place with 13 percent of the vote, down 19 points since the last Monmouth Iowa Poll which was released on Oct. 22.
Cruz leads among evangelicals and tea party supporters. "I always expected that Cruz would do well in Iowa. Either win or finish in the top three,” Richard Schwarm, the former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party told ABC News. "The Trump phenomenon took us all by surprise, but the Cruz phenomenon has not. I don’t think he’s peaking too early."
With less than 60 days to the Iowa Caucus, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is seeing larger numbers at his events and increased fundraising. There's a growing consensus among Iowa's conservatives that they must elect someone this time around who can get past the early voting states as Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum struggled to do.
At Donald Trump’s Davenport, Iowa rally on Saturday, Ron Rockwell of Clinton, Iowa said he’s on the fence between Trump and Cruz, but leaning toward Cruz. “Senator Cruz is a true conservative. I believe he supports the constitution more than the other candidates. Donald Trump on the other hand, is a mild conservative,” said Rockwell.
Cruz’s fundraising prowess has enabled his campaign to add more field staff in Iowa and the senator himself has hit the ground harder, making five trips to the Hawkeye state in the past month and a half. Cruz's campaign and a super PAC supporting him have also begun running radio and television ads in Iowa and Cruz's campaign was given a boost when Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) endorsed him last month.
"The difference over the last two or three months each time he comes to the state, it just seems like there’s more excitement and people seem to be starting to understand that they have their champion in this election cycle," Cruz's Iowa State Director Bryan English told ABC News in late November.
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