Exclusive: Republican presidential hopeful Cruz in national dead heat with Trump - poll

By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential underdog Ted Cruz has pulled into a statistical dead heat with front-runner Donald Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. The U.S. senator from Texas has 35.2 percent support among Republicans to Trump’s 39.5 percent, according to the survey taken from April 1-5, putting the two within the poll’s credibility interval of 4.8 percentage points. The two were also briefly in a dead heat on March 28. Trump first jumped to the top of the Reuters/Ipsos national poll in July 2015. The only time a rival came close to Trump’s lead in the poll before Cruz was Nov. 7. when neurosurgeon Ben Carson briefly tied him. Cruz had trailed Trump nearly 20-points a month ago. (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Leslie Adler)