Internal poll shows Jindal gaining ground in Iowa

Fresh off a strong performance at last weekend’s Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Bobby Jindal is gaining ground in Iowa, his campaign says.

The Louisiana governor, who remains a long shot to capture his party’s presidential nomination, is now polling fourth in a 16-candidate field in the Hawkeye State, where February’s caucuses serve as the starting gun for a long primary fight.


Jindal draws 8 percent support from likely GOP caucus-goers in Iowa, according to a survey conducted this week by his campaign.

That catapults Jindal into fourth place in Iowa, ahead of Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry and the rest of the field.

He still trails Scott Walker, who has a commanding lead with 23 percent support in the poll, as well as Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, who polled at 13 and 9 percent, respectively.

Since July 1, Jindal’s support has jumped 5 percentage points in Iowa, the most of any candidate other than Walker, who is also up 5 points in the month; and 70 percent of those surveyed currently have a favorable opinion of Jindal, almost a 20 percent increase from the start of the month, according to the campaign’s polling.

Like Walker, Jindal has promised to do “the full Grassley,” a campaign tour in all 99 of the state’s counties.

“Bottom line, Gov. Bobby Jindal has taken off in Iowa,” said Wes Anderson, who conducted the poll for Jindal’s campaign. “No other candidate has seen as much positive movement as Jindal. If he remains on this trajectory, the coming weeks are likely to show the governor making even greater strides as his message continues to draw acceptance from Iowa Republicans.”

The telephone survey of 600 likely caucus-goers, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent, was conducted over three days, from last Sunday through Tuesday, following what was by all accounts a strong turn by Jindal at last weekend’s summit, where ovations for Jindal, who savaged the mainstream media, surpassed those for Cruz and all others, according to Iowa radio personality Steve Deace.

“He represents a nice mix of Mr. Cruz’s courage of conviction and fellow Gov. Scott Walker’s résumé of accomplishments,” Deace wrote. “If there was a straw poll at the event he would’ve finished in the top three at the very least — maybe even won it. He’s still lagging behind organizationally and may end up being left out of the debates, but his message is a winner. Now he just needs to get Iowans to buy into the messenger.”

Jindal raised just $579,000 his first week as a presidential candidate, but has an additional $8.6 million in his corner thanks to supportive outside groups.

That pales in comparison to the war chests amassed by the other candidates who are making a strong play for Iowa, especially Cruz and Walker; and Bush, with his overwhelming fundraising advantage, will be well positioned to overtake Jindal or any other long shot who happens to do well in the first contest once the primary fight accelerates as it broadens out beyond the early states.

“We know we have a long way to go,” Anderson said. “But we made a decision to go all-in with our resources in Iowa, to focus there. This tells us we’re on the right track.”