Poll: Donald Trump Holds 34-Point Advantage over GOP Primary Field in Tennessee

Former President Donald Trump holds a considerable lead over other declared Republican candidates and potential rivals in Tennessee, according to a Vanderbilt University poll.

The poll, conducted April 19-23, shows that 59 percent of Republican respondents prefer Trump as their nominee. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not announced a White House bid, sits 34 points behind Trump in second place with 25 percent support, and no other candidate secures double digits.

Five percent of respondents prefer former Vice President Mike Pence, four percent support former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and three percent back Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has two percent support.

The poll also broke the demographic down into “MAGA [Make America Great Again] Republicans” and “Non-MAGA Republicans.”

Trump leads with MAGA Republicans, taking 74 percent of the sub-group. DeSantis does second-best with 19 percent, followed by Haley at 3 percent and Pence at 2 percent. Scott takes one percent of the sub-group, while Hutchinson receives no support.

Among “non-MAGA Republicans,” DeSantis holds a slim six-point advantage over Trump at 38 percent to 32 percent. Another 11 percent prefer Pence, while eight and seven percent support Haley and Scott, respectively. Two percent prefer Hutchinson.

In a hypothetical head-to-head, Trump leads DeSantis 57 percent to 38 percent, marking a 32-point swing since Vanderbilt’s November poll. At that time, DeSantis polled at 54 percent to Trump’s 41 percent.

Vanderbilt University also gauged potential general election matchups between the top two performing Republicans and President Joe Biden, asking voters to choose a potential candidate if the election were today.

In a rematch of the 2020 election, Trump takes 42 percent of the response, while 26 percent support Biden and 31 percent would vote for another candidate.

A DeSantis versus Biden contest becomes more competitive, with 24 percent backing Biden and 33 percent supporting the Florida governor. The number of respondents who would back another candidate grows to 40 percent in that scenario.

Vanderbilt sampled 1,003 registered voters between April 19-23 and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.