A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now leads in the race to capture the Republican presidential nomination, with Gingrich running neck-and-neck with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Gingrich leads Romney among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, according to the poll, 22 percent to 21 percent. That is well within the poll's margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.
Gingrich has surged over the past two weeks: In the previous poll, conducted Nov. 3-6, he was at just 12 percent among all GOP and GOP-leaning adults, trailing Romney and businessman Herman Cain.
Cain's support has ebbed since the previous poll, and he only received 16 percent of the vote. Earlier this month, Cain was at 21 percent, tied with Romney, whose support has held steady. Cain's drop comes amid an ongoing sexual harassment scandal and other campaign missteps.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, runs fourth, at 9 percent, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry has fallen to 8 percent. Among all Republican adults, Perry was at 11 percent earlier last month, and he was as high as 31 percent in mid-September.
Gingrich is running strongest among older Republicans: Among a wider sample of Republican adults, Gingrich leads Romney among those 50 years of age and older.
The USA Today/Gallup poll was conducted Nov. 13-17, surveying 1,062 Republican and Republican-leaning independent adults. The margin of error for the full survey is +/- 3.2 percent. Of the full sample, there were 946 Republican and Republican-leaning independent voters.
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