New Iowa Poll: Romney Would Have Faced Many Campaign Hurdles
The 2012 nominee compared favorably to Jeb Bush on some issues, but many Iowa Republicans thought his time had passed.
Daniel Acker
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Mitt Romney would have faced numerous challenges in the presidential nomination lead-off state of Iowa if he had decided to enter the 2016 presidential contest, a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows.
Forty percent of Republicans likely to participate in the 2016 Iowa caucuses view Romney unfavorably, up from 30 percent in a similar October survey, while his approval rating dropped to 57 percent from 65 percent. Likely caucus-goers were also skeptical about their party's 2012 nominee potentially entering the race. Nearly half–45 percent–didn't want him to do so.