Former President Donald Trump formally launched his re-election campaign in November and since that time has led all of his actual and prospective Republican primary competitors in most of the polls.
In one recent poll, Trump drew more than double the support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has not declared his candidacy, and more than triple the support for the declared candidacy of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Breitbart reported.
Trump has twice the support of DeSantis
In light of Haley’s recent entry into the 2024 Republican primary contest, Rasmussen Reports surveyed 900 likely voters between Feb. 16-20, with a 3 percent margin of error, and asked those voters who they would prefer between former Ambassador Haley, Gov. DeSantis, and former President Trump.
Trump garnered 52 percent support, which was more than twice as much as the 24 percent who picked DeSantis and more than three times as many as the 15 percent who supported Haley.
No other actual or prospective candidate drew more than 3 percent, and a sizeable 9 percent of respondents were undecided on who they would support.
GOP voter candidate preferences:@realDonaldTrump – 52%@GovRonDeSantis – 24%@NikkiHaley – 15%
Not sure – 9%
Other – @Mike_Pence @mikepompeo @Liz_Cheney @tedcruz @VivekGRamaswamy ? – 3% https://t.co/rl7rhvjbNx— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) February 23, 2023
Trump doubles up on DeSantis
The results of that Rasmussen survey aren’t too dissimilar from the results of a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll from the same period in time that was released just a few days earlier, per a separate report from Breitbart.
That national poll surveyed 1,838 registered voters between Feb. 15-16, with an unknown margin or error, and among other things, asked several questions about the hypothetical Republican primary field for 2024.
Former President Trump drew 46 percent support compared to 23 percent for Gov. DeSantis, which was down five points from the most recent prior survey.
Former Vice President Mike Pence ranked third with 7 percent while former Ambassador Haley was next with 6 percent, up three points from the prior poll.
Trump victorious in all head-to-head matchups
In the Harvard/Harris poll’s hypothetical head-to-head matchups, Trump beat DeSantis 56-44 percent as well as Haley by a wider margin of 69-31 percent.
As for how the top two Republicans fared against the top two Democrats, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the pollsters determined that Trump would defeat Biden 46-41 percent as well as Harris 49-39 percent.
Meanwhile, if DeSantis were the GOP nominee, he would edge out Biden 42-41 percent and Harris 42-40 percent.
For what it is worth, the poll also found among just Republican and independent voters that 54 percent predicted that Trump would win the GOP’s nomination, and among the 46 percent who thought he would lose, 41 percent believed DeSantis would ultimately prevail while 27 percent were entirely unsure of who would win in the absence of Trump.
