Ted Cruz Surges To Big Lead Over Donald Trump In New Iowa Poll, Trump Says He Is Ready For A Fight

Ted Cruz is on the move in Iowa. With less than two months to go until that state’s caucuses, GOP national frontrunner Donald Trump finally faces some significant competition in the important primary contest. Although other candidates, including political outsider Ben Carson, have enjoyed sporadic surges in polls over the course of recent months, Cruz appears to have accomplished what has hitherto seemed impossible in the wild and wooly Republican race. As reported by NBC News and other outlets, the Texas Senator has gained a windfall of new support, achieving a double-digit lead over Trump, according to a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll.

Now leading Donald Trump by 10 points in the aforementioned poll, Ted Cruz is taking the good fortune in stride, as his campaign continues casting a watchful eye to the near future.

“From the beginning of this campaign, we’ve talked about uniting courageous conservatives to reignite the promise of America and keep our nation safe,” said Bryan English, Iowa’s state director for the Cruz campaign. We have more work to do, but we can definitively say the message is working.”

CNN notes that the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics was conducted between December 7 and 10, after Donald Trump’s controversial call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States from abroad. While Trump faced a torrent of backlash from his fellow Republicans in the wake of his incendiary comments, it is not clear if there is a correlation between Cruz’s subsequent rise and Trump’s anti-Islam rhetoric.

For his part, Donald Trump says he is ready for a challenge from Ted Cruz. The two have, for the most part, avoided conflict during the course of their respective campaigns, often maintaining a decidedly pleasant relationship compared to trump’s exchanges with other GOP challengers. Even in the midst of widespread Republican criticisms over Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims, Ted Cruz declined to wade too far into the fray, chiding the media for trying to incite conflict between the two camps.

But leaked audio from a closed-door Ted Cruz event earlier this week appeared to suggest that Cruz’s respect and patience towards Trump were waning. In the recording – transcribed by CNN and others – Cruz indicated that he anticipates that political “gravity” will be the downfall of the Trump and Cruz campaigns, partly due to the fact that voters will not see either man as a suitable commander-in-chief.

Although Ted Cruz downplayed the remarks via Twitter, Donald Trump hit back with a tweet of his own, advising that Ted Cruz will “fall like the others.” According to a report by NBC News, Trump also spoke about Cruz at an event in Iowa on Friday night, maintained that he still likes Ted while raising questions about Cruz’s ties to big oil.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz will be face to face at the next GOP debate, which will be hosted by CNN on December 15.

The Iowa caucuses will be held on February 1, followed by the New Hampshire Primaries on February 20 the South Carolina GOP primary on February 20. A WBUR/MassINC poll shows Donald Trump enjoys a substantial lead over his competitors in New Hampshire according to Real Clear Politics. Ted Cruz is a distant fourth place in that race and in a poll of South Carolina Republicans, Cruz stands at third place behind Trump, who is in first place, and Ben Carson.

[Photo by Steve Pope/Getty Images]