Ted Cruz catches up to Donald Trump in latest national poll


A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been winning over Donald Trump's supporters, allowing Cruz to significantly close the gap on the perennial Republican presidential frontrunner. Cruz now has the support of 24 percent of registered Republican voters, just four points away from Trump's lead of 28 percent. That's within the poll's margin of error of ± 4 percent. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson are a distant third and fourth in the race, at 12 and 10 percent respectively; the rest of the field is stuck in the single digits.
The New York Times reports that the Quinnipiac University poll should be an eye-opener for the Trump camp, proving they're not as invincible as they might have thought. Trump has lost Tea Party voters and evangelicals to Cruz, who now surpasses him among those groups. Additionally, Cruz is making healthy gains with those who are not college-educated, another group Trump had counted on in the past.
The Quinnipiac University poll also found that half of Americans would "be embarrassed" if Trump was elected president.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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