A new poll suggests Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz is gaining support among likely Iowa caucus-goers. Quinnipiac University pollresults released Tuesday show Cruz passing retire neurosurgeon Ben Carson to claim second place behind Donald Trump. The same poll had Cruz with 10-percent support a month ago. It now gives him 23-percent. That’s a statistical tie with Trump’s 25-percent showing.
Quinnipiac poll assistant director, Peter Brown, says campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is becoming a two-tiered contest: those candidates with no previous elected experience, and those who currently hold political office.
“You have a two-tiered situation,” he says. “You have the outsiders, Carson and Trump, [and] the insiders, the leading ones are Cruz and Rubio. And everybody else is well behind them. It will take somewhat of a miracle for one of those other candidates to make it up into the top tier.”
Quinnipiac’s poll shows Carson with 18-percent support among Iowa likely caucus goers, and Marco Rubio with 13-percent.