Ted Cruz Poll: GOP Gaining Ground From Obamacare Fight

Sen. Ted Cruz told fellow conservatives Wednesday that the polling news isn't all bad for Republicans: his own survey found the contentious Obamacare defunding fight bolstered the party's political position, the Washington Examiner reported.

Republicans who attended the closed-door lunch Wednesday hosted by Senate conservatives told the Examiner that Cruz presented the poll he paid for — and pollster Chris Perkins of Republican polling firm Wilson Perkins Allen was there to explain the numbers.

The survey’s findings paralleled other national polls, the newspaper said: more voters blame the Republicans for the government shutdown than blame President Barack Obama or the Democrats.

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Only 28 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, a Gallup poll showed Wednesday.

But Cruz argued that because the shutdown resulted from a disagreement over Obamacare, not spending in general, Republicans are in a better position now than they were during the last government shutdown in 1995-96, the Examiner reported.

Cruz's poll found 46 percent blame the 2013 shutdown on Republicans, while 51 percent blamed the 1995 shutdown on Republicans, according to the Examiner.

Other findings included a 45 percent job-approval rating for Obama and a 52 percent disapproval rating, while 67 percent said Obamacare was the "major reason" for the government shutdown.

Cruz was hammered last week for pushing Republicans into a politically risky shutdown without a strategy to win the standoff.

The Wilson Perkins Allen poll was conducted last week and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.