Donald Trump has won the final week of
USA Today's GOP Power Rankings, in which a panel of political experts say who they believe is the strongest candidate in the Republican presidential field.
For the final week of newspaper's 22 weeks of rankings, Trump is out in front, just like he was like the first week and for all but five weeks of the survey.
"In fact, with the Iowa caucuses less than a week away, Trump appears stronger than ever. He received 26 first-place votes this week, the most he has ever received from our panel," USA Today says.
"It is a complete reversal from the end of September, when the general consensus of our experts was that Trump had peaked, that his spats with various candidates and public figures were wearing thin.
"Carly Fiorina and [Sen.] Marco Rubio were trending upward based on strong debate performances, and national polls showed Ben Carson tied with Trump for the lead. But week after week, Trump proved he had staying power, just by continuing to be Donald Trump."
The rankings are:
1. Donald Trump (Last Week: 1)
2. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas (2)
3. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (3)
4. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (6)
5. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (5)
6. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (4)
7. Dr. Ben Carson (7)
8. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (8)
9. Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (9)
10. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (10)
11. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (11)
12. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (12)
"The enduring lesson from this (campaign) season is that authenticity matters," Alex Smith of the College Republicans told USA Today.
"Young voters were decisive in the 2012 general election, and will be so again in 2016, comprising 20 percent of the electorate. What is the one trait that matters to them? Being who you say you are."
Asked to pick winners for the Democratic and Republican caucuses in Iowa, the panel divided almost evenly in both races.
On the GOP side, 13 predicted a Trump victory, 11 picked Cruz, one said Rubio, and the rest had no guess. On the Democratic side, 13 predicted Hillary Clinton will win Iowa and 12 picked Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.