Kyle Leighton August 25, 2011, 5:51 PM

Tex. Gov. Rick Perry’s move from non-candidate to frontrunner in the GOP nomination process has been a big story, but a story driven largely by national polling. While Perry’s starting to become the first choice of the national Republican electorate, the nomination process will go through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, where other candidates had a head start. But according to two new polls, that advantage has been lost.

A pro-Perry PAC just released a poll of GOP caucus-goers showing him in the lead with 23 percent, followed closely by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) at 20 percent and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney at 16. The rest of the field is rounded out by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) at 9 percent, businessman Herman Cain at 8, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) at 7, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 3 and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman at 2. The PAC also touts 30 percent support amongst self-described “very conservative” caucus-goers, which they say makes up 55 percent of that group.

Perry also took the Iowa lead in a survey of GOP voters conducted by Public Policy Polling (D), suggesting that Bachmann, who won the Ames Straw Poll, has been losing support in the state, which is essential to her campaign. In that poll, there was an increase in Bachmann’s unfavorable rating from PPP’s survey of the Iowa GOP in June, while Perry’s favorable numbers have rocketed to 56 percent.

Read the whole PAC poll here.

The poll was sponsored by the Make US Great Again PAC, and was conducted by Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research. The survey used live telephone interviews conducted from August 21st - 22nd of 402 likely GOP caucus-goers, and has a sampling error of 4.9 percent.

2012 Presidential Primaries, Iowa caucus, Polls, Pres '12, Rick Perry