Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson Rise in Iowa Scott Walker Takes a Fall

In a Gravis Marketing poll released today Jeb Bush leads fellow GOP rivals among Republican Party Iowa voters while Senator Marco Rubio and former brain surgeon Ben Carson have increased their popularity while Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has taken the largest fall. In a telephone survey conducted April 13, former Governor Bush (R-FL) led with 16 percent of voters surveyed with Walker coming in at 13 percent, followed closely by fellow Floridian Rubio at 12 percent. The poll was conducted the same day as Rubio's announcement of his 2016 Presidential bid.

The biggest gainers were Marco Rubio, who improved five points from his seven percent support in a February poll conducted by Gravis, Jeb Bush with a net six percent jump and Dr. C arson, who received nine percent support an increase of four percentage points from February. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also gained two points from the his four percent support in the previous survey while Mike Huckabee rose a point to eight percent.

Among those seeing their support drop since February, Walker suffered the largest losses, losing 11 percentage points from his strong previous showing. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul dropped a point to 9 percent, while former Pennsylvania Senator and 2012 GOP runner-up Rick Santorum lost four points, leaving him at two percent support. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina remained steady at three percent. Potential candidates Rick Perry and Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) were not included in the polling.

In head-to-head polling against presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton, Republican Party supporters have reason to be optimistic. Both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio trail the better-known former First Lady by three percentage points, and despite his loss of support among GOP voters, Walker trails Clinton by four points. When asked the same question in February, Clinton led both Bush and Walker by six percentage points, indicating her overall support by Iowans has slipped despite her high-profile recent visit to the state.

Given they announced their Presidential bids only a day apart, the numbers in a prospective Rubio-Clinton match-up are worth closer examination. While Hillary Clinton leads the Junior Senator from Florida 45 percent to 42 percent, key demographics give Marco Rubio's some encouragement that he can easily bridge this gap. Rubio leads among men by 9 points and Catholics by six. Most interesting for a campaign that will stress a look toward the future and attack the failed policies of the past, Rubio leads Clinton 48 percent to 40 among voters under the age of 50. President Obama capitalized on a large margin of younger voters to capture the Hawkeye state's six electoral votes in both 2008 and 2012.

While Clinton bests Rubio among women, 50 percent to 38 percent, another telling poll showed former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice beating Hillary 43 percent to 40 percent in a mythical match-up. To date Rice has expressed no interest in seeking the Republican Party nomination, but the poll indicates that even women voters are open to a Republican, and Rubio has yet to aggressively court voters in the state.

In a race that has yet to truly begin, these numbers may or may not hold significance as the campaign heats up in earnest in the winter. That said, they should serve as a wake-up call to the Walker camp that they need to actively engage in Iowa or risk seeing a further hemorrhaging of support. It is notable that taken together, the increased level of support enjoyed by Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio equals that of Scott Walker's fall, with Ben Carson's rise being the wild-card. The Gravis Marketing poll of Iowa voters should also serve as a warning to the Democratic Party that although nationally known, Hillary Clinton can not simply assume she will capture the same level of enthusiasm enjoyed by President Obama, and the state will be highly competitive and runs the risk of becoming a GOP pick-up.

“The liberal news media and many freepers are helping Jeb Bush rise to the top by unfairly constantly smearing Scott Walker.

Scott Walker’s actions of passing MANY conservative laws including some against illegal immigrants show who he is a pro-American conservative. Actions, results mean everything. Words mean nothing

Here is just one example of walker taking ACTION against illegal immigrants:

Walker’s 2011 Budget Eliminated A Program That Grants In-State College Tuition To Children Of Undocumented Immigrants.

https://americanbridgepac.org/scott-walker-anti-immigrant-from-policy-to-personnel/";

I agree that Walker has been unfairly attacked by some and it’s reminiscent of 2012 when people would constantly savage Perry, Gingrich and Santorum about 1 or 2 things while saying nothing of Romney’s numerous faults.

My first choice is Cruz at this point — I just think he’s everything you could want in a conservative candidate with great intellect and debating skills to boot. But I would be very happy to get behind Walker if he’s the nominee.

My concern about Walker at this point is not so much any particular issue as his command of the issues, particularly foreign policy. I could be wrong, but to me it seems like some of the answers he’s given are kind of weak.

I’m looking forward to the debates because they’ll answer a lot of these questions and give Walker a chance to show that he is up to speed on everything. If he does well in the debates, I’d say the nomination is probably his to lose.

Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"
I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.
[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]

Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance
...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.
[Posted on 01/31/2013 5:08:50 PM PST by xzins]

Rand Paul's immigration speech
...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.

Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.

Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.

Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.

If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...

This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.

Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reform
Latinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...
[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]

Rand Slams Congress for Funding Egypt's Generals: 'How Does Your Conscience Feel Now?'
Sen. Rand Paul is hammering his fellow senators for keeping billions in financial aid flowing to Egypt's military -- even as Cairo's security forces massacre anti-government activists. [by "anti-government activists" is meant church-burning Christian-murdering jihadists]
[Posted on 08/15/2013 5:44:10 PM PDT by Hoodat]

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