Cruz rockets to third in new poll

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has jumped to third place in the prospective Republican presidential field since making his bid official last week, according to a new poll.

The survey, released Wednesday by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, found Cruz surging from 5% support last month to 16% support from Republican primary voters this month.

He now trails only Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who leads the pack with 20% support, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who takes 17%. Cruz was in sixth place in last month's poll.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul both take 10% support, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tie with 6% each, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie takes 4% and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has 3% support.

That's a steep drop for Carson, who was polling at 18% support last month, and a drop for Huckabee from 10% last month.

Cruz became the first Republican to enter the presidential race last week, and has been touring early primary states since, with events in New Hampshire over the weekend and a jaunt through Iowa planned for Wednesday and Thursday.

The PPP survey indicates his announcement boosted his profile with conservatives and voters nationwide. Cruz tripled his support among those who identified in as "very conservative" in the poll, up from 11% last month to 33% this month.

Artcore,

I hear you. I saw it myself in 2012. I supported Bachmann initially and watched her get trashed (when you say Bachmann, say Rollins). Then I got on the Cain train but as soon as the phoney scandal hit, people deserted and trashed him too, plus he wasn’t very articulate with some of his answers in the interviews. People started jumping into the Perry camp, but that faded very quickly after the “3 points debacle”. Then it was Newt, but I never trusted him like some others did because he could always spin an answer to mean 2 opposite things at the same time. So, like a lot of other people in IA did the week of the primary, I turned to Santorum because he was literally the last person standing that had an ounce of conservatism in him. But he too disappointed. The debate right before the Michigan/Arizona primary was the end of his campaign with some very poor answers he never recovered from.

But that being said, I do not see that happening to Cruz this time. People that were on board for different candidates in 2012 all seem to be behind Ted this time, or at the very least have a favorable opinion of him. The guy is conservative by word and deed and is not afraid to take a stand on controversial issues. He can articulate like Newt and Paul Ryan, but even better and isn’t boring. He also can’t be labeled a “backbencher”.

Cruz doesn’t seem to disappoint. You’ll be hard pressed to find an issue to disagree with him on, and by chance if you do, I suppose he’ll explain it in a sense that has some sort of decent logical reasoning behind it.

The only thing I think people might try to jump on him is with the immigration issue. He wants to secure the border, but you’re not going to hear him say we should deport the millions of illegals already here. Instead, he’s been saying that the process to come here legally should be streamlined, but not to the point 100% get in. What he means is getting the process of immigration running efficiently where the people that want to come here and (this is a key word: Assimilate) into American culture and values. The idea is then these people will go through the efficient immigration systems and come here legally doing everything necessary that it takes to legally become a citizen. After going through that process and feeling a sense of achievement and privilege, the goal is that in addition to other Americans, these new legal immigrants will also look unfavorably at immigrants who continue to enter the country illegally and will not allow what they legally earned to be tarnished by the disrespect of others. This would create a larger pool than now of those opposing amnesty that would cause illegals to question whether it is still worth it to come across the border or not.

I get his idea. It’s sort of a very long term solution, but one I think is far-fetched. I know Cruz would never support Amnesty or issue an illegal Executive Order giving Amnesty to the illegals, but in regards as to what to do with the 11 million illegals already here, neither he nor any other GOP candidate is going to call for immediate arrest and/or deportation which would be simply enforcing the law, but is looked at as being “cruel” and “heartless”.

Still Cruz is by far my #1 choice. Like many others here, I am “ok” with Walker and think he would make a fine nominee, but I am much more excited about Cruz. I also like Marco Rubio, but the immigration issue and working with McCain and Graham did enormous damage to him, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call him a traitor like some have. Dr. Carson is a brilliant man and would make an outstanding Surgeon General, I just don’t think he’s ready for politics. Hucakbee is a one-trick social issues pony, everything else is populist at best. At some point, since Cruz seems to be digging into Carson/Huckabee/Paul support, I suspect Rand Paul will adopt more foreign policy wackiness like his father to keep those lunatic Paulbots that act more like liberals than conservatives in his camp.

As for Jebbers, 17% is legit, he probably has more support. Look, whether we like it or not RINOs and country-club establishment Republicans make up a decent chunk of the GOP. The GOPe has already shown they can win a nomination by simply winning the counties/states in the primaries that consistently go blue in the general election.

Thank you for your thoughtful post!

You said:

“But that being said, I do not see that happening to Cruz this time. People that were on board for different candidates in 2012 all seem to be behind Ted this time, or at the very least have a favorable opinion of him. The guy is conservative by word and deed and is not afraid to take a stand on controversial issues. He can articulate like Newt and Paul Ryan, but even better and isn’t boring. He also can’t be labeled a “backbencher”.

I sincerely hope you’re right and I’m wrong. One day it’s “Cain for President!”; Bachmann for President!”; Cruz for President!”; the next day they’re castigated because they aren’t 100% perfect in every way.

What made 2012 such an utter disappointment, was that Conservatives here on FR joined liberal rags like Politico in trashing our own guys! The Left never do this to their candidates. We gladly allowed the Libs to destroy our candidates, and then we had the nerve to blame the GOP Establishment! And some of the shmucks here on FR had the nerve to bitch when we were left with Romney.

I blame the idiots who stayed home in 2012 for Obama’s second term.

Let’s keep watching; I just have a feeling Cruz will be disowned by those who are now praising him.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.