A new Morning Consult poll has found that Former President Donald Trump has the clear lead in a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis trailing behind by 18 points.
The survey, released last Tuesday, saw similar results to other recent polls that also saw Trump come out on top. According to the results, Trump was backed by 49 percent of potential Republican primary voters, a slight increase from the 48 percent of support he garnered in the same survey a month before.
DeSantis came in second place with 31 percent support, followed by former Vice President Mike Pence with 7 percent and Nikki Haley with 3 percent. Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, announced her candidacy for president in January.
Neither DeSantis nor Pence have formally announced a run.
The Morning Consult poll also reported the favorability of each potential Republican candidate, finding Trump to be viewed as the most favorable by 80 percent of respondents, compared to 18 percent who do not.
With DeSantis, 73 percent of survey-takers said they had a favorable view of him, while nine percent espoused an unfavorable view. However, another nine percent of respondents said they had never heard of the Florida governor, which is a problem that Trump did not have in the poll.
Out of all the potential Republican primary candidates posed by the poll, only one had a majority of respondents saying they viewed her unfavorably — former Rep. Liz Cheney, who was viewed favorably by only 18 percent of respondents.
The polls in Trump’s favor have stacked up in recent months, with a January 20 Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll finding that in a “hypothetical eight-way primary,” 48 percent of Republican voters reported that they would support Trump, while 28 percent would support DeSantis.
In an early February poll, from ABC News and the Washington Post, registered voters prefered Trump over Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election, with Trump garnering 48 percent support compared to Biden at 45 percent. Potential Independent voters favored Trump by 50 percent, 9 points over Biden at 41 percent.
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