The Club for Growth Action claims its anti-Trump ads are working, citing a poll that suggests Trump slipped to second place in the Hawkeye state. However, the poll — paid for by the Club for Growth Action — differs from the Real Clear Politics Iowa average, which still shows Trump on top of the GOP field.
In a press release, the organization — which has gone after GOP frontrunner Donald Trump with $1 million in TV advertisements in Iowa — states the ads have exposed Trump’s “extremely liberal record on taxes, health care, bailouts, and property rights.
In an effort to prove their ad against Trump is working in Iowa, the Club for Growth Action paid for a new poll, which found Trump slipped to second place in Iowa:
Ben Carson 21%
Donald Trump 16%
Marco Rubio 11%
Jeb Bush 10%
Carly Fiorina 10%
Ted Cruz 5%
Mike Huckabee 3%
John Kasich 2%
Rand Paul 1%
Chris Christie 1%
Rick Santorum 1%
Undecided 18%
“Donald Trump is not a conservative, and that message is getting through in Iowa,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh stated in the press release.
Club for Growth Action can’t take full credit. Trump’s stumbling and substance-free debate performance surely hurt him; but CFG Action’s ads have exposed the truth about his history of support for higher taxes, and his advocacy for single-payer health care, eminent domain, and bailouts. That truth has erased Trump’s lead. Club for Growth Action looks forward to expanding its advertising efforts as needed in Iowa and other states in the weeks and months ahead.
However, unlike the Club for Growth Action’s poll, Trump remains on top in the Hawkeye state by more than five points, according to Real Clear Politics.
Additionally, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll over the weekend has Trump in first place in Iowa by five points.
This isn’t the first time this organization has gone after the real estate mogul. The two went back and forth following Trump’s presidential announcement in June when the Club for Growth released a statement attacking Trump’s record. Trump told reporters that the Club for Growth’s attack comes after he wouldn’t give them $1 million, which he alleges the organization requested from him.
Trump has called the organization a “pack of thieves.”
“They [the Club for Growth] came to my office looking for money. I turned them down. That’s why they’re after me,” Trump previously told Breitbart News’ Michael Patrick Leahy.
Basswood Research conducted the poll for the Club for Growth Action from October 3rd to 4th, surveying roughly 500 GOP caucus goers. The poll has a plus or minus margin of error of 4.4 percent.