Trump holds 43% among Iowa voters while Haley, DeSantis tie for second place: poll

DeSantis had been at 19 percent in August, but he's now down 3 points. For Haley, however, it's a huge boost. She was at only 6 percent in August but the latest numbers from a poll done by Selzer & Co. give her a boost of 10 percent. An Emerson College poll in September saw the duo tied at 8 percent.

The two have been duking it out of late, with both candidates being outspoken about the conflict in the Middle East. On that issue, they've been taking aim at each other, but not at Trump. Trump has said that he stands with Israel, as well as with President Benjamin Netanyahu, though he pointed out some of Netanyahu's missteps in the lead-up to this war.

The war began on October 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing more than 1,300 and kidnapping over 250 people. 250 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 30 of whom are children.

"You just have (Haley) rising. You have DeSantis kind of holding on for second place," pollster J. Ann Selzer said. "But both of them are on ground that you could only describe as shaky compared to the solid ground that Donald Trump stands on."

"If anything," Selzer said, "he’s showing improvement."

In the third place spot is Tim Scott, who holds 7 percent, while Vivek Ramaswamy is at 4 percent, along with Chris Christie. Other candidates are even lower down than that. One Iowa respondent said that his key interest in candidates other than Trump is if they can beat him for the nomination. Former VP to Trump Mike Pence dropped out of the race over the weekend.

The poll was conducted of 404 likely Republican caucusgoers from Oct. 22-26, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.