Poll: Trump leads in Iowa as Walker fades

Donald Trump has a healthy lead over the Republican presidential field in Iowa, while support for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who spent months atop the polls in the Hawkeye State, is on the decline.

According to a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday, Trump takes 22 percent support in Iowa. It’s the third Iowa poll released following the first GOP debate last week to show Trump leading in the state.

{mosads}Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has moved into second place in the poll, taking 14 percent support. He’s followed by Walker, at 9 percent, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), at 8 percent. Businesswoman Carly Fiorina and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee take 7 percent support each.

Rounding out the top ten are former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) at 5 percent support each. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie takes 3 percent support.

The survey is great news for Carson, who has posted several strong showings in the polls in the wake of last week’s debate.

A survey of Iowa from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released this week showed Carson pulling into a second-place tie with Walker at 12 percent support. Carson was buried in the previous PPP poll from April at only 7 percent support. He now boasts the best favorability rating of any candidate in Iowa, at 69 percent positive and 10 percent negative, according to PPP.

Furthermore, a Suffolk University survey of Iowa released this week found that Carson matched Rubio as one of the winners of last Thursday’s prime-time debate. A plurality of Iowa voters in that poll said Carson’s closing statement was the most memorable moment at the debate.

The CNN/ORC survey is the second this week to show a sharp drop-off in support for Walker in Iowa.

Walker led the field in Iowa for months but has seen his support fall dramatically since Trump began to rise. Walker suffered the biggest drop of any candidate in Iowa, according to the PPP survey, falling from 23 percent support in April to 12 percent presently.

The CNN/ORC survey is the latest to show Fiorina surging. 

For months, Fiorina struggled to take more than 1 percent in any poll. But she was the clear winner of the GOP undercard debate last week, and a series of polls in Iowa and New Hampshire released this week show she’s vaulted into the top tier of contenders in both early-voting states.

The poll also is good news for Cruz, who is boasting about an uptick in interest since the debate.

The Cruz campaign says it raised $1 million in the days following the debate, and the Texas Republican has attracted big crowds on the campaign trail on a swing through several Southern states.

Still, the CNN/ORC poll shows a fluid race in Iowa. Two-thirds of Republican caucus-goers said they still haven’t settled on their final choice.

There are warning signs in the poll for Trump. 

Many recent polls have shown the businessman and reality TV star in the lead among all demographics.

However, the CNN/ORC survey shows Carson leading Trump among women voters.

Trump trails Carson and Cruz among those who describe themselves as “very conservative,” and he’s tied for the lead with Carson among evangelicals, who make up more than 50 percent of Iowa caucus-goers.

The CNN/ORC poll of 544 Republican caucus-goers was conducted between Aug. 7-11 and has a 4-point margin of error.