According to a new poll taken on Monday, Donald Trump is no longer the top dog in Iowa. Now he has another political outsider, Ben Carson, right alongside with him. The survey taken from likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers by Monmouth University shows Carson tied with Trump at 23 percent. The poll marks the first time since July 26 that Trump was not leading a poll in one of the first four states to hold nominating contests.
Following behind Trump and Carson was former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, at 10 percent - the only other candidate to reach double digits. After them were Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, at 9 percent; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, at 7 percent; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 5 percent; Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, each at 4 percent; Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, at 3 percent; and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, at 2 percent. No other candidates topped 1 percent.
These results lie in stark contrast to Monmouth's last Iowa poll, before the first Republican debate, which had Walker in the lead with 22 percent, while Trump had 13 percent, Carson 8 percent and Florina at 3 percent, according to CNN.
The poll shows that Iowa has a "growing appetite" for political outsiders, which may mean trouble for more traditional candidates who relied on the state to push toward the Republican nomination, reported The New York Times. Candidates like Huckabee and Santorum who were expected to make some level of impact are barely registering with voters.
Monmouth's poll of 405 Republicans had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
