Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has gained support among evangelical Christians, picking up an additional five points in just one week, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.
The real estate mogul now has 37 percent support from the group, while his rival, Ted Cruz, is at 20 percent, according to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll released early Tuesday. Cruz, whose father is a pastor and has recruited religious leaders for the Texas senator campaign for the Republican party's nomination, dropped nine points from the previous week, according to Politico.
"I'm not surprised I'm doing very well with the evangelicals," Trump said during an interview on MSNBC Tuesday morning, according to The Hill.
The major shift may be attributed to the outreach to the evangelical community Trump, a Presbyterian, has conducted in recent weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.
Last week, Trump spoke to 13,000 people at Liberty University, the evangelical Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell, where he pitched himself as a protector of Christianity and evangelical Christians, in particular. "We're going to go right through the whole group, and I think we can do something really special. And we're going to protect Christianity. And I can say that. I don't have to be politically correct. We're going to protect it," Trump said, according to Yahoo! News. "I hear this is a major theme right here."
Jerry Fallwell Jr. appeared to give his blessing to Trump, although the university cannot, by law, endorse candidates. "Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air," Falwell said, according to CNN, adding, "the American public is finally ready to elect a candidate who is not a career politician but rather who has succeeded in real life."
On a national scale in recent polling, Trump leads the GOP field with 36.2 percent support, according to averages of recent polling compiled by RealClear Politics. Cruz is in a distant second with 19.3 percent.
