The Big Mo! Cruz Is Way Out Front In Iowa.

    A prominent evangelical leader in Iowa has endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign as the Texas Republican's campaign continues to gain momentum. 

  The Des Moines Register has released their latest poll numbers tabulated just prior to the crucial endorsement from the head of THE FAMILY LEADER, of Senator Ted Cruz.
  As it did in '08 and '12 with Huckabee and Santorum, this key evangelical leader's endorsement has led to a massive shift in the Iowa Republican polling.  Cruz leads Trump by 10 points, followed by Carson and Rubio in 4th.


  We are posting these snapshots from the Des Moines Registry website. Please read the entire report and view the presentation from their journalists.


 While the poll shows a commanding lead, it is expected to grow even more when the next week of polling is completed.
  Expect national evangelical leaders to also weigh in, in the days and weeks to come.

www.RealClearPolitics.com chart of latest Iowa GOP polls

  Bob Vander Plaats, head of the conservative group the Family Leader, said Thursday that he will back Cruz. He was joined by the group's vice president Chuck Hurley and board chairman Robert Cramer, after nine of 10 board members voted that Cruz was the best candidate in the field. (A tenth board member did not vote.)

  "At the end of the day, we truly believe that Ted Cruz is the most consistent and principled conservative who has the ability to not only win Iowa but I believe to win the (Republican) nomination," Vander Plaats told the Des Moines Register.

One Republican involved in Iowa politics suggested that the clues were there last month, at a donor reception before the Family Leader's Presidential Family Forum. Only four candidates -- Cruz, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, Sen. Marco Rubio and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee -- had beaten a snowstorm to make it there.

But not all candidates were getting the same response. As the Republican made the rounds, he heard a succession of Southern twangs that didn't sound native to Des Moines. Donors who'd ponied up for the event had come from Houston, from Dallas, from Plano -- and all were loyal to their fellow Texan, Ted Cruz.