Internal polling by the Jeb Bush campaign showing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is within 2 points of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in South Carolina is leading to speculation that it might be the reason Trump is going after Cruz so hard.
Fox News media reporter Howard Kurtz tweeted about the Bush internals on Sunday and
Politco reported on them.
Here are the results, according to the internal poll:
- Donald Trump: 26 percent
- Ted Cruz: 24 percent
- Jeb Bush: 12 percent
- Marco Rubio: 11 percent
Public polls give Trump a much larger margin in South Carolina. The four most recent polls in the state at
RealClearPolitics, show Trump ahead by 16 percent to 22 percent.
According to Kurtz, a memo to Bush's PAC says Cruz's jump is "based on significant support" in upstate South Carolina "where evangelical Christians are heavily concentrated."
Radio talk show host
Rush Limbaugh cited the internal poll on Monday, saying it might be the reason Trump has been attacking Cruz so vociferously even though public polls show him with such a strong lead.
Trump has been calling Cruz a "liar" ever since Saturday's debate and on Monday indicated
he might sue over Cruz's "natural born citizen" status if his top rival doesn't stop saying things about him that Trump says are untrue. That includes Cruz saying Trump is
pro-abortion and would appoint liberal judges.
"This would be very much like what happened in Iowa, where the public polling was WAY off. Either they were just inaccurate, or Cruz got a late surge, and a big one,"
The Right Scoop noted. "Again, in Iowa, the 'surge' turned out AGAINST Trump, even though he later claimed it was for him."
But Kurtz warned not to read too much into the Bush internals.
"Polls are snapshots, and often miss the mark," Kurtz said on Twitter. "Take internal polls with a grain of salt. Trump may attract new voters in SC, we don't know."
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