Presidential polling
New Iowa poll shows Ben Carson zooming to a 14-point lead over Donald Trump
Ben Carson is on a roll in Iowa. Last week, a Quinnipiac poll showed him surging to an eight-point lead over Donald Trump in Iowa — 28 percent to 20 percent. And now, a new Monmouth University poll gives Carson his widest margin yet, nearly doubling up on Trump, with 32 percent to The Donald's 18 percent. In Monmouth's last poll of the Iowa GOP, in August, Carson and Trump were tied atop the presidential field at 23 percent apiece.
Trailing Carson and Trump in the latest Monmouth poll are Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio at 10 percent each, Jeb Bush at 8 percent, Carly Fiorina at 5 percent, and Rand Paul at 3 percent. Everyone else was at 2 percent or below. The poll's margin of error is 4.9 percent.
Trump, for his part, has been brushing off these less-than-favorable numbers out of the Hawkeye State. Referring to Quinnipiac and Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register polls that showed him trailing Carson, Trump said, "I don't believe those polls, by the way, because both of those pollsters don't like me."
Trump has yet to comment on how he feels about the Monmouth poll — or if he believes it.