Former President Donald Trump has gained support in the hypothetical 2024 presidential primary race over the last month, the March survey from McLaughlin & Associates found.
The survey, taken March 16- 20, 2023, asked Republican primary voters who they would support for president out of a wide range of potential candidates. The list includes former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, Sen. Mitt Romney, former Rep. Liz Cheney, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Virginia Gov. German Youngkin, Sen. Tim Scott, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former national security adviser John Bolton, and anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
According to the most recent data, Trump leads the pack with 46 percent support, followed by DeSantis, who garnered 23 percent support. For Trump, that reflects an increase from the 42 percent support he saw last month — a four-point jump. Meanwhile, DeSantis’s 23 percent support represents an eight percent drop from the 31 percent support he saw in January and three percent drop from the 26 percent he saw in February.
In other words, Trump’s lead over DeSantis has expanded from 12 percent in January, to 16 percent in February, to a 23 point gap in March:
No other candidate comes close, as Pence comes in third with eight percent support, followed by Haley (5 percent), Romney (3 percent), and Cheney (3 percent). Every other candidate saw one percent support or less.
The survey also asked Republican primary voters who they would vote for absent of Trump, replacing the former president with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. In that scenario, DeSantis takes the clear lead with 35 percent support, followed by Trump Jr. with 14 percent support.
When placed in a head-to-head matchup, Trump leads DeSantis 61 percent to 31 percent. Trump also holds the lead among independents, 48 percent to 39 percent in that scenario:
The results coincide with Tuesday’s Morning Consult survey, which also showed the trend of Trump gaining in support amid rumors of an impending arrest at the hands of woke leftist prosecutor Alvin Bragg. That survey showed Trump expanding his lead over DeSantis from +24 to +28 in the last week:
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