Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has moved into a tie for first place with Donald Trump in a new poll of Iowa Republican caucusgoers released on Monday.
In the Monmouth University Poll, Carson and Trump lead the pack with 23 percent. Former HP chief Carly Fiorina is next on the list at 10 percent, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has nine percent support.
Carson also has the highest favorability rating of any candidate (81 percent). That's 14 points higher than Fiorina (67 percent).
"It doesn't surprise me. We've been doing the ground work. Ben's been here and has a great message. It resonates," Ryan Rhodes, Carson's Iowa state director and former chairman of the Iowa Tea Party, said on Monday.
"Sometimes it's systematically chunking away at a few points here and a few points there. It looks like catching fire, and he has caught fire…but in large part, the race has exploded in terms of people are going to look and going to see these people."
                     
The poll is the first since last month to show Trump falling short of being a clear-cut frontrunner in the key early state.

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