For the first time, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has fallen behind Ted Cruz in national polls, according to a new poll.
Even though it falls within the margin of error, the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Wednesday showed Republican Cruz (28 per cent) now leads nationally ahead of Mr Trump’s 26 per cent.
“Mr Trump had enjoyed a double-digit lead over his rivals, but the new poll found support for him falling by seven percentage points since mid-January,” the Journal reported.
Among registered voters who said they would participate in a GOP primary, he drew 26 per cent support in the new poll, trailing Mr Cruz, who had 28 per cent. The survey, of 400 registered voters who said they would participate in a Republican primary, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, the Journal said.
As per the average of all major polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com, Mr Trump leads the GOP presidential race with 33.3 per cent votes followed by Mr Cruz with 22 per cent.
Mr Trump, however, criticised Wall Street Journal for doing the poll with a small sample survey of 400 people. “I think most of the polls were taken after the debate and they worked out good for me. I have never done well with the Wall Street Journal poll. I do not know. They do these small samples and I do not know exactly what it represents,” Mr Trump said during an MSNBC organised town hall.
“I think somebody at the Wall Street Journal does not like me,” he said in response to a question.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopeful and Texas Senator Ted Cruz has called for a massive expansion of the US military, saying its current size is far below than what is needed to keep America safe.
“President (Barack) Obama has proposed reducing the regular Army to 450,000. I think that is far below what is needed to keep this country safe. I intend to increase it to a minimum of 525,000 soldiers,” Mr Cruz, 45, told a CNN town hall in South Carolina Wednesday.
