Former President Donald Trump leads Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) by almost 20 points in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary matchup, according to a poll.
A Morning Consult Poll released Tuesday shows that 49 percent of potential GOP primary voters support Trump in his bid for the nomination, placing him 18 points ahead of his nearest competitor, DeSantis, at 31 percent. No other potential challenger eclipsed the ten percent mark.
Eight percent of the respondents support former President Mike Pence, placing him in third place, followed by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who each drew two percent of the participants’ support. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Govs. Greg Abbott (R-TX), Kristi Noem (R-SD), and Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) each garnered one percent support.
Of DeSantis supporters, 37 percent say that their second choice is Trump, while 15 percent would back Pence if the Florida governor does not run, according to the poll. Cruz picks up 11 percent of DeSantis’s supporters in that scenario, while 9 percent move to Haley. Similarly, the second choice among 43 percent of Trump backers is DeSantis, while 18 percent say they would vote for Pence if Trump were not in the race. Another nine percent would back Cruz, and three percent would support Haley.
In the poll focusing on the 2024 GOP primary, Morning Consult sampled 4,125 potential primary voters from December 9-11. It has a margin of error of plus or minus two percent.
Morning Consult also surveyed 7000 registered voters between December 9-11 regarding possible 2024 general election matchups between potential Republican nominees and President Joe Biden. This survey has a margin of error of plus or minus one percent. In a rematch between Trump and Biden, 43 percent of respondents would back Biden, while 41 percent support Trump. Another ten percent would plan to vote for someone else, and five percent are undecided in such a race.
In a hypothetical contest between DeSantis and Biden, both candidates received 42 percent of the support. Another 7 percent said they would vote for another candidate, while 8 percent were undecided.