Polls didn’t reflect Cruz win or Clinton squeaker

The final Iowa Democratic caucus results: Hillary Clinton, 49.8 percent, Bernie Sanders 49.6 percent.

Republicans: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, 27.6 percent; real estate mogul Donald Trump, 24.3 percent; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., 23.1 percent.

The results were nothing like the polls that had preceded them. None of the nine major Iowa polls taken in the 10 days before Iowa’s Monday Republican caucus had Cruz ahead, according to RealClearPolitics, which compiles the surveys.

It showed Trump with average lead of 4.7 percentage points. Emerson and Opinion Savvy came closest, both giving Trump a 1 percent point edge.

The closely watched Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll showed Trump up by 5 percentage points, though pollster Ann Selzer said that a bigger-than-expected evangelical turnout would bring Cruz within 1 point.

Among Democrats, eight major polls taken within the final 10 days gave former Secretary of State Clinton a 4 percentage point advantage. Quinnipiac did have Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, up by 3, while ARG also had him ahead by 3.

This story was originally published February 2, 2016 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Polls didn’t reflect Cruz win or Clinton squeaker."