Poll: Trump narrows gap on Cruz in Iowa

With less than three weeks until the Iowa caucuses, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is now neck and neck with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Hawkeye State, according to a new Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll.

{mosads}Trump pulled to within 3 points of Cruz in the latest poll, released on Wednesday, after falling behind the junior Texas senator by 10 points in Iowa last month.

Cruz still leads the Republican primary field in Iowa with 25 percent support, followed by Trump, at 22 percent, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), at 12 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, at 11 percent.

Twenty-three percent of respondents also chose Cruz as their second choice, the most of any candidate. Sixteen percent chose Rubio as their runner-up, followed by 11 percent who said the same of Trump.

But under constant attack from his rivals — especially Trump — Cruz is on shakier footing today in Iowa than he was one month ago.

Trump has hammered Cruz on the senator’s past opposition to ethanol and raised questions about Cruz’s eligibility to serve in the Oval Office because he was born in Canada to an American mother.

However, the Bloomberg poll also found that, among Iowa Republicans, 83 percent said Cruz’s birth outside of the U.S. does not bother them, compared to just 15 percent who said it did.

Cruz’s support in the state comes from voters who say they are very conservative, besting Trump in that category by a 39 to 20 percent margin. He also holds the lead over Trump among evangelicals by a 37 to 17 percent margin.

The survey of 500 likely Republican caucusgoers, conducted from Jan. 7 to 10, has a margin of error is 4.4 percent.