Poll: Trump, Clinton leading in Iowa among likely caucus goers
A quarter of likely GOP voters said they would back Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses next year, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Friday.
Twenty-three percent of likely GOP caucus goers said they would support Ben Carson for president. Thirteen percent said they would back Sen. Marco Rubio and 11 percent said they would support Sen. Ted Cruz.
Carson's support has improved the most since CNN's last Iowa poll from August, going up 9 percentage points. Rubio's support has improved by 8 percentage points.
Support among GOP caucus goers in Iowa for Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich and Rand Paul is in the single digits.
Half of GOP voters said they're still trying to decide which candidate to support at the caucuses. Just over a quarter of GOP voters said they're definitely decided on their candidate and 23 percent said they're leaning toward someone.
On several issues, most GOP voters said Trump would do the best job handling them. Nearly half, for example, said he would handle the economy the best, and 44 percent said he would do the best job handling illegal immigration.
But on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, most said Carson would do the best job handling them.
A recent CBS News Battleground poll showed Trump and Carson were tied in Iowa at 27 percent.
On the Democratic side, 55 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers in Iowa said they would support Hillary Clinton and 37 percent said they would back Sen. Bernie Sanders. Three percent said they would support former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Forty percent of Democratic voters said they're definitely decided on their preferred candidate while 38 percent said they're still trying to decide and 21 percent said they're leaning toward someone.
More than three-quarters of Democratic voters said Clinton has the best chance of winning the general election next November and 20 percent had the same prediction for Sanders.
The recent CBS News Battleground Tracker poll showed a tighter race for the Democratic field. Forty-six percent said they would back Clinton, while 43 percent said they would support Sanders.
The CNN poll surveyed 2,009 Iowa adults between October 29 and November 4 with a 2 percentage point margin of error for all adults and 4 percentage points margin of error for Republican caucus goers.
