Donald Trump has returned to the lead in Iowa while Ted Cruz has now surged past Ben Carson into second place. Carson has slipped from a first-place tie into third.

While Iowa’s Republicans generally feel Trump is ready to be commander-in-chief, Cruz scores even better on this measure, boosted by support from very conservative and Tea Party Iowans who feel he is ready to assume the post. That’s more than say so about Trump, Carson, Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Since last month, Ted Cruz has gained ground — and Ben Carson has lost ground — among some key voting groups in Iowa: evangelicals, Tea Party supporters, those who are very conservative and older voters. And while Trump still leads among some of these groups, it’s Cruz who is ahead among the very conservative, and Trump leads Cruz by just two points among evangelical voters.

Cruz’s move has come directly at the expense of Carson, as nearly one-quarter of his voters switched.

In New Hampshire, Donald Trump keeps his commanding lead, keeping up support from conservatives, Republicans and the independents who say they’re coming into the GOP primary to vote for him. This month finds Marco Rubio nearly doubling his support and pushing into second place — albeit far back of Trump — at 13 percent now, up from 7 percent, enough to edge past Carson and Cruz in the nation’s first primary.

In New Hampshire, even as he’s moved up, Rubio draws mixed evaluations on whether he’s ready to be commander-in-chief. But he still bests Jeb Bush and Ben Carson on the measure; Bush is narrowly viewed as not ready, and Carson is overwhelmingly seen as not ready by New Hampshirites.

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Source: Anthony Salvanto, Jen De Pinto, Sarah Dutton, Fred Backus, http://www.cbsnews.com