Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain is locked in a dead heat with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, according to a new national poll of GOP voters out Monday.
The latest numbers from CNN/ORC International found Romney with 26 percent of the vote to Cain’s 25 percent, but underscore the volatility still present in the GOP nominating contest—two-thirds of Republican voters have yet to settle on a candidate.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry comes in third with 13 percent of the vote in the CNN poll, followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 9 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 8 percent. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, whose standing continues to fall in national polls, comes in just behind Gingrich at 6 percent.
The survey was taken Oct. 14-16 and the margin of error on the ballot test is +/- 5 percentage points.
More good news for Cain from the CNN poll: 58 percent of conservatives are “extremely or very enthusiastic” about voting next year. Among those identifying themselves with the Tea Party the number jumps to 74 percent.
It bodes well for Cain who enjoys a 14 point spread over Romney among conservatives and 22 points with Tea Party identifiers.
While Cain and Romney are still fighting for national frontrunner status, the two are splitting the four early primary states, according to a new set of polls out Monday from Insider Advantage.
In Iowa, Cain holds an 8-point lead over Romney—26 percent to 18 percent. In South Carolina, Cain’s lead is double that. He leads Romney 32 percent to 16 percent.
But in New Hampshire and Florida, Romney leads. He’s up by 15 points over Cain in the Granite State and leads 33 percent to 30 percent in Florida.
Perry, meanwhile, is still in double digits in both Iowa and South Carolina, but he barely registers in Insider Advantage polls out of both New Hampshire and Florida. He’s polling at just 2 percent in New Hampshire and 3 percent in Florida.