Almost three-quarters of Repulicans polled expressed doubt that Obama was born in the U.S. Poll: Iowa GOP wary on Obama birth

Donald Trump’s birther crusade could be a boon in Iowa, and “Romneycare” could dog the former Massachusetts governor in the first-in-the-nation caucus, a new poll shows.

A whopping 48 percent of Iowa Republicans said they don’t believe that Obama was born in the United States, according to the automated survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling out Tuesday. Another 26 percent said they weren’t sure whether or not the president was born in America as the Constitution requires to be eligible to serve in the nation’s highest office.


Trump has driven the widely discredited “birther” issue into the national spotlight as he flirts with an entry into the White House race, placing at the front of the pack in several national polls.

In Iowa, Trump comes in third with 14 percent of the vote, just two points behind Mitt Romney with 16 percent. Mike Huckabee is currently leading in the state, with 27 percent support from Iowa Republicans.

While Romney is polling second in the Hawkeye state, the poll also points to a potential pothole in the road for him: 63 percent of Iowa GOPers say supporting a state-level health insurance mandate is a disqualifier. Only 11 percent say they’d be willing to vote for someone who backed a state-level bill mandating that voters have health insurance, as Romney did in Massachusetts.

If Huckabee and Trump opt out of the contest, Romney leads with 25 percent of the vote, leaving second place a statistical dead heat between Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul.

Tuesday’s poll of 419 Iowa Republicans was conducted April 15-17 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.