So much for the “gold standard” of polls, the Des Moines Register Iowa Poll conducted by J. Ann Selzer. The final Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released over the weekend showed the race trending to Trump:
1. Donald Trump: 28% (up from 22% a month ago)
2. Ted Cruz: 23% (down from 25%)
3. Marco Rubio: 15% (up from 12%)
4. Ben Carson: 10% (down from 11%)
5. Rand Paul: 5% (unchanged)
Each of the remaining candidates were at 3% or lower in this poll. Trump’s 28% was his best showing in any Selzer poll this cycle, and his five-point lead is his biggest margin since August.
The only poll that really counts is actual voters who actually bother to show up and vote. Campaigns still come down to the ground game that turns out the vote.
And tonight in Iowa, Senator Ted “Calgary” Cruz, the Canadian anchor baby who may not be qualified to serve as president, beat out the bullyboy from New York, Donald Trump.
The Des Moines Register callas the race, Republican Ted Cruz wins Iowa caucuses:
Ted Cruz delivered Donald Trump a body blow in Iowa, giving him an unexpected smackdown in the first-in-the-nation presidential vote.
Cruz, an anti-Washington crusader and proud thorn in establishment Republicans’ sides, won enough support from evangelical conservatives and tea party voters to put him over the top, despite being 5 points down in the final Iowa Poll before the caucuses.
The 45-year-old Texas U.S. senator, who logged more than 150 events over 56 days in Iowa this election cycle, upheld the longtime theory that a traditional ground game and intense one-on-one retail politicking matter.
Iowa, a state where almost half of likely GOP caucusgoers identify themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, continued its trend of promoting a social conservative rather than the national front-runner.
* * *
Cruz was buoyed by the 12,000 volunteers working for him in Iowa, including 164 Iowa pastors, 12 state legislators, 2,426 precinct captains and co-captains, U.S. Rep. Steve King, Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats, radio talk show host Steve Deace, and more than 800 out-of-staters who moved during the final month into temporary housing at a Des Moines apartment building nicknamed Camp Cruz. The Cruz fans made an average of 25,000 volunteer calls each day and knocked on 2,000 doors a day during the final push, aides told the Register.
Cruz strategists were quick to remind reporters that they believe he has the organization and dollars to compete across the nation. He has raised over $50 million and reports $19 million on hand.
The winnowing has begun: former Arkansas Governor and FAUX News grifter Mike “Huckajesus” Huckabee has suspended his campaign. Huckabee suspends presidential campaign. The Huckster will go back to his day job of grifting by the end of the week.
Do you even know what an anchor baby is? Ted’s mother was born in the US and was a US citizen when Ted was born, making him a natural born US citizen. The term would only make sense if Ted’s parents attempted to use his birth to gain Canadian citizenship…
I think you’ve missed the joke.
It’s a joke! lighten up. And Ted was a Canadian citizen until 2014.
I wish the IRS had taken a stronger stand in 2008 or 2012 when many church ministers openly endorsed Republican presidential candidates from their pulpits, in emails and other methods.
It is time to consider revoking tax exempt status of any church that wants to play in the political arena.
We need tougher Democrats.
Your scheme would include just about every Southern Baptist congregation…
Of course, it would also rope in all of the National Baptists, too..
its like when hitler attacked stalin you didn’t know who to boo for!
Ted Cruz or Donald Trump: who is worse? I can’t decide.