Donald Trump beat Ted Cruz by five points in the Iowa Poll released on Saturday — two days before the Hawkeye State holds its caucuses — among Republican voters, while Hillary Clinton edges Bernie Sanders by three points among Democrats.
Here are the results of the survey of 602 Republican voters conducted Tuesday through Friday:
- Trump: 28 percent.
- Cruz: 23 percent.
- Marco Rubio: 15 percent.
- Ben Carson: 10 percent.
- Rand Paul: 5 percent.
- Chris Christie: 3 percent.
- Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rick Santorum: 2 percent each.
- Jim Gilmore: Zero percent.
Here's the difference among the top finishers over last month's poll:
- Trump: Up 6 points.
- Rubio: Up 3 points.
- Cruz: Down 2 points.
- Carson: Down 1 point.
In the Democratic race, here are the results of the survey, also of 602 voters:
- Hillary Clinton: 45 percent, up 3 points over January.
- Bernie Sanders: 42 percent, up 2 points.
- Martin O'Malley: 3 percent, down 1 point.
The margin of error in polling for the Bloomberg/Des Moines Register Poll on both samples of likely Iowa caucus-goers is 4 percent.
The Hawkeye State holds its caucuses Monday in the first contest of the 2016 presidential election season. Mike Huckabee won in 2008 and Rick Santorum in 2012.
The 2016 Iowa race has essentially turned into a battle between Trump and Cruz, as the pair has remained virtually neck-in-neck in polls — both nationally and in the Hawkeye State.
In January's Iowa Poll, Cruz finished just three points ahead of Trump, 25-22 percent.
Trump has bashed Cruz throughout the campaign on issues ranging from the Wall Street loans he obtained for his Senate run to his Canadian birthplace — calling the first-term Texas senator "an anchor baby" on Friday in New Hampshire.
"Ted Cruz was a Canadian citizen until 15 months ago," Trump told supporters Saturday in Dubuque. "How the hell can he run for president?"
Cruz, in turn, has said Trump has "New York values" and has questioned his foreign-policy credentials.
With the barbs, the senator broke a longstanding pledge to not attack Trump or otherwise engage in "Republican-on-Republican violence."
Cruz underwent heavy attacks during the seventh presidential debate in Des Moines on Thursday, after Trump skipped the contest in a rift with Fox News over co-moderator Megyn Kelly. Instead, Trump held a fund-raising rally in the city for veteran's organizations.
The remaining six challengers pummeled Cruz with attacks. Marco Rubio — steadily remaining in third place in Iowa — ripped Cruz on immigration and charged that he was willing to say anything to get elected.
Rubio finished at 12 percent in last month's Iowa poll.