Poll: Fiorina leads Clinton by double digits in Iowa

A new poll finds GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina leading Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by 14 points in the early-voting state of Iowa.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll found Fiorina up 52-38, with Clinton trailing several GOP rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups.

The largest Iowa gap is with Fiorina, but former Secretary of State Clinton also trails Jeb Bush by 10 points and Donald Trump by 7 points there in the poll.

{mosads}Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Clinton’s top rival for the Democratic race, fairs better. Sanders trails Bush and Fiorina by just 2 and 3 points respectively, and leads Trump by 5 points.

In New Hampshire, where Clinton announced her gun-control proposals Monday, Sanders leads Fiorina by 2 points, bests Trump by 10 points and ties with Bush, while Clinton trails Fiorina by 8 points, Bush by 7 points and leads Trump by 3 points.

A similar NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week found Vice President Joe Biden, who is considering entering the Democratic race, fairing better nationally than Clinton in match-ups with several Republican presidential candidates.

Trump and Clinton continue to lead their respective parties in the two early-voting states after the second GOP debate last month and ahead of the first Democratic debate next week.

Trump’s lead in Iowa, though, has narrowed. He has 24 percent support, followed by Ben Carson at 19 percent, Fiorina at 8 percent and Bush at 7 percent among 491 GOP voters, with a 4.7 percent margin of error.

Trump leads Fiorina by 5 points in New Hampshire, 21 to 16 percent, followed by Bush at 11 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Carson tied at 10 points each. 

On the Democratic side, a survey of 348 Democratic voters, with a 5.3-point margin of error, finds Clinton leading in Iowa (47 percent), followed by Sanders (36 percent) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (4 percent). Sanders has a 9-point lead in New Hampshire.

The surveys of 1,061 registered voters in Iowa and 1,044 in New Hampshire were conducted Sept. 23 to Sept. 30 with a margin of error of 3 points each.