Former President Donald Trump has taken a massive lead in the Republican primary race, the latest NBC News poll found.
The survey found a majority, 59 percent, choosing Trump as their number one candidate of choice in the GOP primary race. No other individual comes remotely close, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis falls to a distant second, 43-points behind with 16 percent support.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came in third place, nine points behind DeSantis with seven percent, followed by four percent who chose both former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, three percent who chose South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and two percent who chose anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
When asked to identify their second-choice candidate, DeSantis leads the group with 37 percent identifying him as their second-place individual.
For greater perspective, Trump led the GOP primary by 15 points in April with 46 percent support. In other words, his lead has jumped by 13 points over the past few months, while DeSantis’s has fallen by 15 points.
The full survey was taken September 15-17, among 1,000 registered voters. It has a /- 3.10 percent margin of error.
It comes mere days ahead of the second Republican primary debate, which will feature DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Haley, Pence, Scott, Christie, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who appears to have recently qualified for the debate, taking place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday.
Like the first debate, Trump will not participate and is instead expected to travel to the battleground state of Michigan to meet with striking autoworkers.