New state polls released ahead of critical primaries on Tuesday find Donald Trump poised to deliver a knockout blow to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in his home state, while the Republican front-runner is tied with Ohio Gov. John Kasich on his turf. RealClearPolitics - Election 2016 - South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary Donald Trump is now leading Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary by 5 points — down from his 16-point lead in the state a month ago. Donald Trump holds a broad 16-point lead among those likely to vote in South Carolina's Republican primary this Saturday, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton tops Bernie Sanders by 18 points in the state's Democratic primary, which will be held a week later. Marco Rubio benefited from low expectations in Iowa. How else do you explain finishing third and getting a big bump in the polls? And before Saturday night’s debate debacle, I thought expectations might be getting too high for Rubio in New Hampshire. For example, check this out: Donald Trump still has a commanding lead; Bernie Sanders leads Hillary Clinton. As Iowans prepare to cast the first votes in the presidential nominating process Monday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hoped to defy the polls and pull off upset victories in Monday night's caucuses. When Donald Trump announced last summer that he was running for president, he didn't expect to be leading the polls a day ahead of the Iowa caucus, the real estate mogul said this morning on ABC's "This Week." Asked by “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos, “Did you ever imagine then that on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, you'd be leading -- leading pretty big in every state?” Trump responded, “The truth is, no, I didn't.” The final Des Moines Register poll was just released, showing Donald Trump leading the Republican field in Iowa with 28 percent, Ted Cruz with 23 percent and Marco Rubio with 15 percent. Hillary Clinton was ahead of Bernie Sanders, 45 percent to 42 percent, on the Democratic side. The political world — us included — was eagerly awaiting this survey, as Ann Selzer, who has conducted the Register’s polls since the 1988 caucuses, has a very good track record. But just how predictive of the final results have Selzer’s polls been? History suggests they’re a good indicator of what will happen in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, though there is room for a candidate or two to surprise. The final Iowa pre-caucus poll from the highly regarded Bloomberg/Des Moines Register/Selzer poll finds businessman Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading in their parties' contests. In the Republican caucus, Trump leads Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 28 percent to 23 percent. In the Democratic caucus, Clinton leads Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 45 percent to 42 percent. The last major preference poll before Monday's Iowa caucuses showed a change at the top of the GOP race. The Iowa Poll, published Saturday by The Des Moines Register and Bloomberg, said Republican real estate mogul Donald Trump has the support of 28 perfect of likely caucus goers, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 23 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 15 percent.
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