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Newt Gingrich has surged to a commanding lead in the first voting state of Iowa, taking the top spot from Herman Cain, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll of likely caucus-goers.

The former House speaker attracts 32 percent of the support, up 23 points since the same poll was taken in October. Gingrich leads across gender, age and income groups and also among conservatives and Tea Partiers. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney takes second place with 19 percent, down two points since last month. Cain, who has had to address revelations of past sexual harassment allegations, drops to third place with 13 percent of the support, down 15 points from a month ago.

Meanwhile, Texas Rep. Ron Paul gets 10 percent, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann garner 6 percent each. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum picks up 5 percent and ex-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman gets 2 percent. Notably, only 38 percent of respondents are certain of their choice.

Gingrich appears most qualified to be president, 76 percent of those surveyed say. Seventy-one percent say the same for Romney. But a large majority -- 70 percent -- says any of the GOP hopefuls would do a better job than President Obama, while 24 percent disagree.

Iowa will hold its nominating caucuses on Jan. 3.

Rasmussen surveyed 700 likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers on Nov. 15. The sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points.