Carson zooms past Trump

Carson zooms past Trump in Iowa, second poll shows

By Eliza Collins

Ben Carson has a nine percentage-point lead on Donald Trump in Iowa, according to a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll out Friday.

In the poll — the second this week to find the retired neurosurgeon moving ahead of the billionaire real estate mogul — Carson leads with 28 percent of likely Republican caucus goers, followed by Trump at 19 percent. Carson is up 10 percentage points since August, when the poll was last taken, while Trump has dropped 4 percentage points.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz comes in third with 10 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has 9 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul each had 5 percent.

Carson does well among Iowa's most conservative constituencies: A third of the state's critical evangelical Christian voting bloc chose Carson in October's poll, up from 21 percent in August. He is also leading among self-described backers of the tea party, with a similar level level of support.

Nor does it seem Carson’s comments about Muslims have harmed his support in Iowa. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” in September, Carson said he would “not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation" — and he fended off days of critical press coverage. But according to Friday's poll, more than two-thirds of likely Iowa GOP caucus goers believe a Muslim should not be president.

“His standing has improved in every way pollsters traditionally measure,” J. Ann Selzer, president of West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll, told Bloomberg. “This might be a wake-up for Donald Trump.”

The poll included 401 likely Republican caucus goers was taken Oct. 16-19. Out of the full sample, the margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, though it was higher in subgroups.