Gallup: Ted Cruz favorability plummets as Donald Trump rises

New figures by Gallup Poll show that Sen. Ted Cruz's favorability score among Republican and Republican-leaning voters has fallen sharply, while frontrunner Donald Trump's has risen. ﻿ New figures by Gallup Poll show that Sen. Ted Cruz's favorability score among Republican and Republican-leaning voters has fallen sharply, while frontrunner Donald Trump's has risen. ﻿ Photo: Joe Raedle, Staff Photo: Joe Raedle, Staff Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Gallup: Ted Cruz favorability plummets as Donald Trump rises 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

Gallup reported Monday that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is growing in favorability while more Republicans see Ted Cruz negatively than positively for the first time this election.

"His image has essentially nosedived over the past week or two, while Trump's image has become more positive," wrote Frank Newport, editor in chief of Gallup, a respected opinion pollster.

The senator has already suffered a series of blows in recent days, from the stumbling rollout of his unconventional anti-Trump alliance with rival John Kasich, to his resounding defeat by Trump in a series of Northeastern primaries, to media fixation last week on former house speaker John Boehner's comments comparing Cruz to Satan.

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Since the Republican field began to narrow, Cruz enjoyed a brief stint as the favored candidate by the party establishment in its drive to nominate any presidential contender but Trump. But according to recent media reports, high ranking Republicans are coming forward and saying it's time to embrace Trump, who seems poised for a victory in Tuesday's crucial Indiana primary.

According to Gallup, the portion of Republican-leaning respondents who reported favorable views of Cruz hovered near 55 percent since the pollster began tracking in July. It hit a peak in January, when Cruz scored 61 percent favorable and 15 percent unfavorable.

Since the last week of April those scores have flipped to 39 percent and 45 percent respectively, putting Cruz's favorability at -6.

"The last few days have marked the first time we have seen Cruz's image underwater since we began daily tracking in July," Newport wrote.

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Gallup is among the nation's oldest pollsters of public opinion, though it has drawn frequent criticism and scored a C+ in pollster ratings by news website FiveThirtyEight.

Figures reported by Gallup shows that Cruz long held a position of higher favorability than Trump among the conservative electorate, until March, when the two candidates' scores converged. Trump began to exceed Cruz's favorability in April.

However Trump and Cruz's scores remain tight among all U.S. adults, with -29 for Trump and -25 for Cruz.