The Club for Growth Action claims its new TV ads are discrediting Donald Trump among voters — a boast that flies in the face of the billionaire developer's still-enormous lead in the GOP presidential polls.
In a press release issued Tuesday, the super PAC for the conservative political advocacy group Club for Growth said its $1 million TV buy in Iowa is exposing Trump's "extremely liberal record on taxes, health care, bailouts, and property rights."
It also said a new poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus voters indicates that "the more they hear about Trump's record, the more they reject it."
Among the eleven candidates tested, the survey found Trump with the seventh highest favorable rating, at 53 percent, and the second highest unfavorable rating, at 41 percent.
The ballot test, conducted by Club for Growth Action by Basswood Research, a leading Republican polling firm, revealed the following:
- Dr. Ben Carson — 21 percent
- Donald Trump — 16 percent
- Sen. Marco Rubio — 11 percent
- Jeb Bush — 10 percent
- Carly Fiorina — 10 percent
- Ted Cruz — 5 percent
- Mike Huckabee — 3 percent
- John Kasich — 2 percent
- Rand Paul — 1 percent
- Chris Christie — 1 percent
- Rick Santorum — 1 percent
- Undecided — 18 percent
Club for Growth President David McIntosh said the group's three-week-old ad blitz is paying off.
"Donald Trump is not a conservative, and that message is getting through in Iowa," McIntosh said.
"[We] can't take full credit. Trump's stumbling and substance-free debate performance surely hurt him; but CFG Action's ads have exposed the truth about his history of support for higher taxes, and his advocacy for single-payer health care, eminent domain, and bailouts.
"That truth has erased Trump's lead. Club for Growth Action looks forward to expanding its advertising efforts as needed in Iowa and other states in the weeks and months ahead."
But other polls show Trump doing substantially better.
While his lead has shrunk from a month ago, Trump remains the front-runner ahead in the early Republican nominating contests of Iowa and New Hampshire, according to
NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls released Sunday.
In New Hampshire:
- Donald Trump: 21 percent
- Carly Fiorina: 16 percent
- Jeb Bush: 11 percent
- Marco Rubio: 10 percent
- Ben Carson: 10 percent
And in Iowa:
- Donald Trump: 25 percent
- Ben Carson: 16 percent
- Carly Fiorina: 8 percent
- Jeb Bush: 7 percent
- Marco Rubio: 6 pecent
- Bobby Jindal: 6 percent
In addition, Trump still maintains a healthy lead in the national GOP polls.
In the latest
Pew Research Center poll of possible Republican primary voters:
- Donald Trump: 25 percent
- Ben Carson: 16 percent
- Carly Fiorina: 8 percent
- Marco Rubio: 8 percent
- Ted Cruz: 6 percent
- Jeb Bush: 4 percent
- Mike Huckabee: 2 percent
- Rand Paul: 2 percent
The Club for Growth's campaign to portray Trump as the "worst Republican" among all of the GOP presidential contenders because he is too liberal on many issues has sparked a blistering war of words between the two.
Trump has called the Washington-based group "phony" and
threatened to sue, charging the ads spread "inaccurate information."
He also claimed it had threatened to run the negative ads against him after asking for a $1 million donation last summer.
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