WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s front-runner status slipped on Sunday, with a poll showing his lead shrinking in two critical early-voting states.
The billionaire Republican presidential candidate is ahead by 5 points in New Hampshire, down from a 16-point lead in the state last month, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found.
He also leads by 5 points in Iowa, a slip from the 7-point edge he had over Ben Carson in September.
The real-estate mogul, meanwhile, reiterated on Sunday that he would drop out of the race only if he started tanking in the polls.
“I believe in polls,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “How many elections do you see where the polls were wrong? Not that many.”
In Iowa, Trump is the favorite among Republicans, with the NBC/WSJ poll putting him at 24 percent, followed by Carson (19 percent), Carly Fiorina (8 percent) and Jeb Bush (7 percent).
Trailing are Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio, all tied at 6 percent.
Bush saw his support nearly cut in half since July, when he was in third place in Iowa at 12 percent.
Fiorina’s strong debate performances continue to translate into gains in the polls, garnering her a 7-point jump since July in Iowa.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses last cycle, but the new poll puts him at 1 percent.
In New Hampshire, Trump is first at 21 percent, but Fiorina catapults to No. 2 for the first time in the NBC/WSJ poll at 16 percent.
She’s followed by Bush (11 percent), Rubio and Carson (tied at 10 percent), Chris Christie (7 percent) and Cruz and John Kasich (tied at 6 percent).
Kasich, the Ohio governor, has suffered the most in New Hampshire, where he was in second place at 12 percent in September.
Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he expects the Republican primary race will be a “nail-biter” until the voting begins Feb. 1 because many people are “waiting to make up their minds.”
“I am still hearing a buzz about Donald Trump, both positive and negative,” he told host John Catsimatidis Sunday on AM 970’s “The Cats Roundtable.”
“I’m sensing some momentum in the Rubio campaign, in the Christie campaign, in the Bush campaign.”
Polling has shifted after each of the Republican presidential debates, which drew record audiences at 23 million and 24 million viewers apiece. The candidates will have a third shot to shake up the race on Oct. 28 at the CNBC debate in Colorado.
The prime-time CNBC debate will feature only candidates who average 3 percent or more in the latest national polling. The others took at least the top 10 candidates.