Sen. Ted Cruz has lost ground to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in the Iowa caucus, falling 7 points behind, a new
Quinnipiac Poll released Monday shows.
Cruz was just 2 points behind Trump in last week's Quinnipiac Poll in a statistical tie, while the latest results are outside the polls margin of error.
Here's how the GOP candidates line up in the poll, conducted from Jan. 25-31:
- Donald Trump: 31 percent
- Ted Cruz: 24
- Marco Rubio: 17
- Ben Carson: 8
- Jeb Bush; 4
- Rand Paul: 4
- Mike Huckabee: 3
- John Kasich: 2
- Carly Fiorina: 2
- Rick Santorum: 1
- Chris Christie: 1
- Undecided: 3
Leading up to Monday night's GOP caucuses, the two Republican candidates have been battling it out with a flurry of attack ads, Twitter burns and Facebook rants and while the latest Qunnipiac poll shows that Trump has sustained his lead despite the ongoing attacks, Cruz' standing in the polls has waned.
"Trump holds his own, while Sen. Ted Cruz seems to lose momentum," said poll director Peter Brown.
According to Trump, it's no surprise that the Texas senator has dropped in the polls after his campaign sent out a "voting violation" mailer that grades not only the recipient's voting history, but that of their neighbors, citing public records.
"It looks right out of municipal government, and it says, violation and it's amazing and I've never seen anything like it. It's a total fraud. Now he's being investigated over it, but it's a total fraud, a disgrace that they can do it," Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program on Monday, just hours ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
The real estate tycoon added that Cruz will be "finished" after the supporters are tallied.
And while Trump has continuously questioned Cruz' place of birth and whether or not he is qualified to be the President of the United States, the real estate mogul added that the subject has turned into "a big cloud over his head."
"I said he was born in Canada, which is true ... It's come out loud and strong. I tell you, some constitutional lawyers just over the weekend have concluded with results he's not allowed to be president," Trump continued.
While Trump has stated that he's "doing the best he can to persuade people," Brown's team credits Trump's lead in part to support from first-time caucus-goers.
On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders holds a 3 point lead over Hillary Clinton:
- Bernie Sanders: 49 percent
- Hillary Clinton: 46
- Martin O'Malley: 3
- Undecided: 2
The Vermont independent seeking the Democratic presidential nomination
declared Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" that he will win the Iowa caucuses on one condition — if there's a large voter turnout.
"Younger people, lower-income people, if they come out in big numbers we'll win. If they don't, we won't," Sanders said. "We want to see people vote. We want to see them caucus and vote."
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