Real-estate mogul Donald Trump got some great news on Thursday afternoon in the form of a new CNN/ORC poll showing him pulling ahead in Iowa.
That survey showed him leading his top rival, US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), 37% to 26%, among likely Iowa caucus-goers.
But the CNN poll was apparently too recent for Trump to tout at a Thursday rally in Las Vegas, Nevada. Instead, Trump boasted about his results in another recent Iowa poll, from Emerson College, that found him beating Cruz 33% to 23%.
“I’m winning like all of the polls — and by a lot,” Trump declared.
“Emerson College, very important, great college. Trump 33%, Cruz 23%. Nice! Nice! Wow,” he added.
After Trump heralded another survey, from North Carolina, the Republican front-runner said Cruz was tanking in the 2016 race.
“Cruz is going down,” Trump exclaimed. “He’s going down. No, he’s having a hard time. He looks like a nervous wreck. He’s going down. He had his moment. He had his moment. He had his moment, and he blew it.”
Cruz had surged in recent weeks to roughly tie Trump in Iowa, the first state to weigh in on the Republican race. But two other recent polls showed the February 1 caucus as still neck and neck.
A new KBUR/Monmouth College poll found Cruz leading Trump in Iowa 27% to 25%, while a Loras College poll found Trump pulling ahead of Cruz by a single point: 26% to 25%.
The CNN Iowa poll also had good news for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who ticked up three points since the previous month and placed third at 14%. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who briefly led in some Iowa polls in October, has dropped from 16% to 6% since the previous month.
As reported by Business Insider