A pollster in Iowa said on Sunday Donald Trump is defying political logic with his 2016 GOP presidential campaign.
Ann Selzer added that Trump is converting skeptics in the Hawkeye State in a way she has never previously encountered.
“A few months ago, he had the highest unfavorable [rating] of anybody,” Selzer said of Trump on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“And people said, ‘Well, he can’t possibly do any better in the horse race because his unfavorable [ratings] are so high,’ ” said Selzer, president of the Selzer & Company polling firm in Des Moines. “Can you ever really turn those around?
“I said, ‘You know, we’ve seen everything happen,’ ” she told host John Dickerson. “And we’ve certainly seen it happen this time.”
Selzer pointed out her organization’s latest poll as proof that Trump is winning the respect of everyday Iowans.
The new Bloomberg/Des Moines Register sampling released on Saturday has the outspoken billionaire scoring a 61 percent favorability rating.
He earns a 35 unfavorability rating, the survey added, a nearly complete reversal since the last Bloomberg/Des Moines Register sampling in May.
“He now has seven people with higher unfavorable [ratings] than he has, and that includes Jeb Bush,” Selzer said Saturday, referencing the former GOP governor of Florida.
“He has grown his favorability and its turned into votes,” she added of Trump’s fortunes in Iowa.
Saturday’s poll also said that Trump leads the race in Iowa for next year’s GOP presidential nomination with 23 percent support.
The latest RealClearPolitics average of national samplings, meanwhile, also has the New York business mogul ranked first in the Republican field, with 23.5 percent.