Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is polling lower than four Republican candidates in Iowa, according to Democratic pollster
Public Policy Polling.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has the highest lead over Clinton at 44 percent to Clinton's 40 percent. Three other Republicans lead the former secretary of state by a single point. They are:
- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 44/43
- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, 44/43
- Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 43/42
The pollsters did not ask voters about all 17 announced Republicans against Clinton, but did release a list of those they said fared worst. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was at the bottom, trailing Clinton by 4 percent. He garnered 40 percent support to Clinton's 44 percent.
The rest of the GOP field shakes out like this:
- Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, 40/43
- Real estate mogul Donald Trump, 40/43
- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 42/44
- Business executive Carly Fiorina, 40/42
- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 39/41
- Ohio Gov. John Kasich, 39/41
Though the poll shows Trump wouldn't beat Clinton in a general election at this point, he
currently leads his fellow Republicans in Iowa.
"Iowa is looking very much like a tossup in the presidential race at this early stage," said PPP President Dean Debnam. "The numbers are more reminiscent of the photo finish in the state in 2004 than Barack Obama's relatively comfortable wins in 2008 and 2012."
The pollsters noted that the results fall within the poll's margin of error.
The poll comes as Clinton has seen her favorability and trust numbers slide amid stories about donations to her family's foundation and questions about the private email server she maintained during her tenure as secretary of state.
Clinton's unfavorable rating was 52 percent in the poll. Her favorable rating was 38 percent.
Vermont independent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders has been
drawing large crowds and has seen rising support against Clinton in the Democratic race, though he still trails by large margins.
The PPP poll pitted him against four Republicans and found that Trump and Bush both trailed him, Walker was tied, and Rubio bested Sanders by one point.
- Sanders/Trump, 44/40
- Sanders/Bush 41/40
- Sanders/Walker 40/40
- Sanders/Rubio 38/39
Sanders' favorability rating was higher than his unfavorability, but not by much. Thirty-four percent liked him, 31 percent didn't and 35 percent weren't sure.
The poll also found that most Iowans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they didn't approve of the job Obama is doing while 43 percent approve. Obama won Iowa in 2012 with 52 percent of the vote.
The Republican favorability/unfavorability numbers shook out like this:
- Carson 41/23
- Rubio 37/35
- Huckabee 37/43
- Walker 32/39
- Fiorina 31/29
- Cruz 30/43
- Trump 30/57
- Bush 29/45
- Christie 24/51
- Kasich 23/25
- Paul 22/53
The poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters August 7-9 over landline phones and the Internet. The margin of error for the overall survey is plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points.