NEW POLL: Trump Beats DeSantis, Pence, Haley, Rubio, and Cruz COMBINED for GOP Primary
A new poll out this week shows former president Donald Trump with more support than several of his next closest possible 2024 GOP primary opponents combined — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trump beat the competition in a hypothetical 8-way primary, in the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll of Republican voters reported by The Hill this week.
With 48% of Republican respondents calling Trump their first choice to be the GOP nominee, he finished with more than the combined individual preferences for DeSantis (28%), former vice president Mike Pence (7%), Florida senator Marco Rubio (3%), former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (3%), and Texas senator Ted Cruz (1%).
That’s 20% more than his next closest competitor in DeSantis. He also boasted a 10-point lead over DeSantis in a hypothetical head-to-head primary matchup, and 5-point lead over Biden in a general election rematch. Trump lost the popular vote to Biden by 5.5 points in the 2020 presidential election
In spite of the promising showing, experts say it shouldn’t be taken as a guarantee that Trump will ultimately prevail.
Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, said that while Trump may have the edge right now, he’s largely maxed out his potential for growth. DeSantis, meanwhile, has shown that he has the potential to widen his base of support.
Penn told The Hill that although “Trump is ahead,” his ceiling is limited because he “already has every vote he can get.”
“DeSantis is the candidate of potential,” he argued.
Evidence for Penn’s analysis can be found in the Trump and DeSantis’s net favorability ratings. The two GOP frontrunners were both viewed favorably by 45% of respondents, but only 32% have an unfavorable opinion of DeSantis while 48% expressed an unfavorable opinion of Trump.
Other polls have indicated that the race between Trump and DeSantis is tighter, with some even showing DeSantis in the driver’s seat in a two-man race.
