The last Republican presidential debate of 2015 solidified the top candidate spots, analysts and voters say.
By Rebecca Morin | [email protected]
The back and forth between Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz at Tuesday evening’s Republican presidential debate did not hurt their chances in Iowa — in fact, some Iowan voters saw that as a way to solidify their positions, along with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
David Yepsen, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said Tuesday evening’s debate, which was hosted by CNN and Salem Media Group at the Venetian in Las Vegas, was not a game-changer for the front-runners in vying for the Republican nomination.
“Every candidate did themselves some good,” Yepsen said, who spent 30 years at the Register and held positions such as chief political writer, political editor, and political columnist. He noted that Trump, Rubio, Cruz, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are still in front.
Rubio and Cruz, who has inched his way to the top in several Iowa polls, spent most of the evening debating with each other, outlining their differences on immigration policy.
Cruz brought up Rubio’s affiliation with the Gang of Eight, a group of senators that tried to pass a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013. Since then, Rubio has touted the need for more border security; at the debate, he also said he still supports reforming a path to citizenship.
Cruz said he “never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization” on a pathway to citizenship.
“Cruz did what he needed to do,” said Shane Vander Hart, the founder of Caffeinated Thoughts, a Christian conservative news blog based in Des Moines.
In a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa poll released Dec. 12, Cruz led the state with 31 percent. He surpassed Trump, who was the first choice of 21 percent of Republican likely caucus-goers. Carson followed with 13 percent and Rubio with 10 percent.
With 400 Republican likely caucus-goers surveyed, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Pottawattamie County Republican head Jeff Jorgensen said Trump was the winner for voters in his county of Tuesday’s debate, followed by Rubio and then Cruz.
“Donald Trump has the best decisions on any of the candidates,” Jorgensen said. Pottawattamie County is located on the western part of the state on the Missouri River.
According to a Monmouth University Poll national poll released Monday, Trump is leading with 41 percent for Republican voters. Cruz came in next with 14 percent, followed by Rubio with 10 percent.
With 385 Republicans surveyed by telephone between Dec. 10-13, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush went after each other the most Tuesday evening, with Bush calling Trump a “chaos candidate,” and Trump saying that Bush is running a failing campaign.
“Frankly, all the candidates have to learn, let Donald Trump be Donald Trump,” said Don Kass, the chairman of Plymouth County Republicans. “Either people are going to like him, or they’re not going to like him.”
Kass add he didn’t think Bush did himself any good by attacking Trump.
Tyler De Haan, the chairman of the Dallas County Republicans — a county located in central Iowa, said the latter half of the debate is foreshadowing what the coming weeks will look like before the Feb. 1 caucuses.
“In the second half of the debate, you started seeing the gloves come off a bit,” De Haan said. “That’s going to be more pronounced in the next six weeks.”
Political reporters Brent Griffiths, Aleksandra Vujicic, and Quentin Misiag contributed to this article.