According to The New York Times’ first Republican primary poll of the 2024 presidential election cycle, former President Donald Trump holds a dominant lead over his GOP opponents. When asked what candidate they would be most likely to vote for, 54% of respondents went with the former president.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., received the second highest amount of votes at just 17%.
No other candidate polled higher than 3%.
“Trump held decisive advantages across almost every demographic group and region and in every ideological wing of the party, the survey found, as Republican voters waved away concerns about his escalating legal jeopardy,” the Times wrote about the poll results. “He led by wide margins among men and women, younger and older voters, moderates and conservatives, those who went to college and those who didn’t, and in cities, suburbs and rural areas.”
Not only did DeSantis pull less than a third of the support than Trump in the GOP primary poll, he also performed his weakest among some of the Republican Party’s biggest and most influential constituencies.
When asked about a hypothetical one-on-one matchup between Trump and DeSantis, 62% of poll respondents went with Trump.
“I think it’s time for Ron DeSanctimonious and so many of those other clowns understand. Now, you had to see Iowa. They’re speaking to people that aren’t even listening, they’re talking and they’re waiting for me I have to say, they’re waiting for me to come up. I spoke last. I spoke last, but they’re waiting for me to come up,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania. “But for Ron DeSanctimonious and so many others that are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote gathering operation to take on crooked Joe Biden in November because we cannot lose, we cannot allow our country to lose that election.”
The poll’s release came almost three weeks ahead of the first GOP primary debate on Aug 23. The following candidates had qualified as of the weekend of July 29:
- Donald Trump.
- Ron DeSantis.
- Tim Scott.
- Nikki Haley.
- Vivek Ramaswamy.
- Chris Christie.
- Doug Burgum.
A notable absence on that list is former Vice President Mike Pence. While he has the polling support to qualify for the debate, he has yet to satisfy the donor requirement.
