Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster
Want to know who is pulling ahead in Iowa? The answer might just depend on which poll you’re looking at.
A flurry of polls released this week in advance of the Iowa caucuses showed it could be a tight race among the Republican presidential hopefuls. Three polls have Donald Trump leading the pack — two of which showed the New York businessman maintained a commanding lead.
The two remaining polls out of Iowa had Trump neck-and-neck with Ted Cruz, with the Texas Senator pulling ahead in one of the surveys.
Trump leads the pack in Iowa with 37 percent. Among likely GOP caucusgoers, according to a CNN/ORC poll. Cruz is in second with 26 percent, while Marco Rubio is in the third with 14 percent. Ben Carson and Jeb Bush are at 6 percent and 3 percent respectively.
The CNN/ORC poll was conducted by telephone from Jan. 15 through Jan. 20.
An Emerson College poll conducted between Jan. 18 and Jan. 20 also showed Trump with a wide lead in Iowa. The survey showed Trump leads his Republican rivals with 33 percent, followed by Cruz at 23 percent. Rubio is at 14 percent while Carson is at 9 percent.
A Loras College poll of likely Republican caucusgoers found a much tighter race.
The survey was conducted from Jan. 13 through Jan. 18. Trump leads with 26 percent, while Cruz is at 25 percent. The poll found Rubio is in third with 13 percent; Carson is at 8 percent, and Bush is at 6 percent.
Cruz jumps to the front in a KBUR/Monmouth College poll. He leads with 27 percent, while Trump is in second with 25 percent. The survey found Carson was in third with 11 percent, followed by Rubio at 9 percent. Bush came in fifth with 7 percent.
On the Democratic side, the CNN/ORC poll found Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton 51 percent to 43 percent among likely Democratic caucusgoers.
In the KBUR/Monmouth College survey, Clinton leads Sanders 48 percent to 39 percent. She also leads Sanders in Emerson College poll, 52 percent to 43 percent.
