In a fictitious 2024 Republican primary poll, former President Donald Trump leads his potential rivals by double digits.
Trump is the front-runner according to the most recent findings of Morning Consult’s “2024 GOP Primary Elections Tracker” survey, which found that 45 percent of likely Republican primary voters back him in his bid for the presidency. With 34 percent of the respondents’ support, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is in second place, 11 points behind Trump, and is followed by former Vice President Mike Pence with 8%.
Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the UN, and Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming, each receive three percent of the vote, compared to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) two percent. The Republican governors of Texas, South Dakota, and Virginia, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, all have one percent support.
When compared to a previous Morning Consult poll from the middle of December, which showed DeSantis with 31% of the respondents’ support and Trump with 49%, DeSantis has made just moderate improvements.
Supporters of Trump and DeSantis were also asked who their second-choice candidate would be in the recent poll. 43 percent of Trump supporters list DeSantis as their second choice, followed by 20 percent for Pence, and 10 percent for Cruz. Similarly, 34% of DeSantis voters rank Trump as their second choice, followed by Pence (16%), Haley (13%), and Cruz (9%).
4,829 prospective GOP voters participated in the survey’s section asking about their top and second choices for the fictitious GOP primary. Additionally, Morning Consult predicted how Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as DeSantis and Biden, may face off in the general election. There were “at least” 7000 registered voters nationwide who participated in these surveys.
In a rematch between Biden and Trump, the 45th president receives support from 40% of participants, putting him four points behind Biden at 44%. In their hypothetical contest, DeSantis and Biden are tied with 42 percent of the vote each.
The most recent data was gathered by Morning Consult between December 31 and January 2.
“Findings among probable Republican primary voters have only an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 1 to 2 percentage points across all-time series,” according to the polling company, “while results between all voters have an unweighted error margin of 1 percentage point.”
