For the first time in months, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has taken a significant drop in the 2016 campaign, falling second place to Ben Carson in Iowa, according to a new poll.

The latest Quinnipiac University Poll reveals that the billionaire businessman has fallen behind the retired neurosurgeon by 8 points among Iowa Republicans. Carson scored 28 percent of voters, while Trump only managed to obtain 20 percent. That's a major turn from last month's Quinnipiac poll, where Trump led Carson 27 percent to 21 percent.

This is also the first major poll to find Trump trailing by a significant margin nationally or in the early states since late June, when he trailed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 12 percent to 19 percent in a CNN national poll.

"It's Ben Carson's turn in the spotlight," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll.

In spite of Carson's recent inflammatory statements about the Holocaust and gun control, foreign policy and Muslims, Brown notes that the soft-spoken doctor has gained traction among religious voters and women. Carson also touts an extremely high favorability rating.

"Today's results show his appeal is especially strong among the state's sizeable white, evangelical Christian community, among whom Carson is receiving 36 percent, twice Trump's 17 percent," Brown said. "Those who know Carson seem to like him. He has an almost unheard of 84 - 10 percent favorability rating among likely Republican Caucus-goers, compared to Trump's 53 - 43 percent rating. To borrow the line from Madison Avenue, 'Almost no one doesn't like Ben Carson.'"

Meanwhile, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in third place in the Quinnipiac poll with 13 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 10 percent. Kentucky Rep. Rand Paul had 6 percent, while Carly Fiorina and Bush both received 5 percent.

In response to the poll, Trump retweeted a tweet about Iowa voters, saying, "#BenCarson is now leading in the #polls in #Iowa. Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain?" He later backtracked, explaining that the retweet was done accidentally by one of his interns.

"The young intern who accidentally did a Retweet apologizes," he tweeted.