New Iowa poll finds Trump with one-point lead over Cruz

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is in a statistical tie with rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in Iowa, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.

The poll finds Trump narrowly ahead of Cruz, 28 percent to 27 percent, a finding within the survey’s margin of error.

{mosads}The same poll in November also showed a tight race, with Trump leading Cruz, 25 to 23 percent.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sits at a distant third, with 14 percent, followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, with 10 percent. The rest of the GOP field doesn’t register above 5 percent in the poll.

A flurry of recent polls has found Cruz surging in Iowa, which will host the first presidential contest of 2016 on Feb. 1.

A Fox News poll released Sunday morning found Cruz up in Iowa by two points over Trump, while a Des Moines Register poll found Cruz opening up a 10-point lead on Trump.

The new Quinnipiac survey found that terrorism is the most important issue among likely GOP caucusgoers. Thirty-three percent of those voters say that Trump is the best candidate to handle the issue, followed by Cruz at 24 percent. The same poll found Republicans view Cruz as the best candidate on foreign policy, with 27 percent, compared to Trump, with 19 percent.

Cruz also gets the highest favorability rating in the poll, with a 72-18 percent split between voters who view him favorably and unfavorably. He’s followed closely by Rubio, with 71-18 percent, and Carson with 74-20 percent.

Trump is further back because of a high unfavorable rating. Fifty-five percent view him favorably compared to 39 percent who are unfavorable.

The poll was conducted from Dec. 4 to Dec. 13 and surveyed 874 likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers via landlines and cellphones. The margin of error was 3.3 percentage points.