Former President Donald Trump is ahead of his potential 2024 Republican challengers by double digits, a Tuesday Morning Consult survey found.
The survey showed Trump leading his closest potential challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), by 18 percent, garnering 49 percent support compared to the governor’s 31 percent.
No other potential challenger comes close, as former Vice President Mike Pence falls to third place with just seven percent support. Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, who is reportedly slated to announce a presidential bid this month, comes in fourth place with three percent support, followed by former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) with two percent and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with two percent. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) saw one percent support, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin garnered zero percent support:
Roughly one month ago in this survey, on January 7, Trump stood at 47 percent support compared to DeSantis’s 33 percent. The current figures reflect a swing in Trump’s direction.
DeSantis stands as the first choice for Trump voters when it comes to who they would choose as a second option — 42 percent. Just 16 percent of Trump supporters chose Pence, followed by Cruz (9 percent), Haley (4 percent), and Pompeo (4 percent). Similarly, Trump remains the top second choice for DeSantis voters, as 39 percent chose him followed by Haley (17 percent), Pence (14 percent), and Cruz (7 percent).
The second choice for Pence voters appears to be more divided, as 24 percent chose Trump, followed by 20 percent for DeSantis, and ten percent for Haley and Cheney.
The same survey also showed Trump leading Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential head-to-head matchup, 43 percent to Biden’s 40 percent. The survey shows DeSantis and Biden tied at 42 percent.
The survey was taken February 3-5, 2023, among 3,549 potential GOP primary voters.
At this point in time, Trump is the only GOP candidate who has formally announced a presidential bid, but Haley is reportedly expected to announce a bid February 15, despite stating last year that she would not run against Trump.
“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” she said at the time. “That’s something we’ll have a conversation about at some point, if that decision is something that has to be made.”
Trump has confirmed that Haley spoke to him, explaining that he told her “Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run.”
“She called me and said she’d like to consider it, and I said you should do it,” he added.
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