Benzinga - by Chris Katje, Benzinga Staff Writer.
Former President Donald Trump continued to dominate national election polls of Republican voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Here’s a look at the latest poll showing Trump with a comfortable lead over his rivals ahead of the second primary debate.
What Happened: The 2023 year has been eventful for Trump with multiple indictments and federal charges, as well as a calendar filling up with court appearances ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Despite these developments, Trump continued to see strong backing from Republican voters, which makes him the current odds-on favorite to win the 2024 GOP nomination, barring any future setbacks or surges from rival opponents.
The latest Morning Consult poll of GOP voters showed Trump losing support and his lead shrinking slightly compared to last week.
Here’s a look at who Republican voters would vote for today, with the percentage from last week in parentheses.
- Donald Trump: 58% (59%)
- Ron DeSantis: 15% (13%)
- Vivek Ramaswamy: 9% (10%)
- Nikki Haley: 7% (6%)
- Mike Pence: 6% (5%)
- Chris Christie: 2% (2%)
- Tim Scott: 2% (2%)
Related Link: Donald Trump Effect: Republican Voters Think Their Party Cares More About Them Than They Did In 2016
Why It’s Important: Trump lost one percentage point from last week’s poll, while several rivals moved up in the vote.
DeSantis saw his vote share increase by two percentage points and marking his highest figure in several weeks and after two straight weeks of market share drops.
Haley gained one percentage point and moved to 7% of the vote, after several weeks at 6%. Haley moved up in vote share since the first Republican primary debate where she was voted as one of the winners alongside DeSantis and Ramaswamy. Prior to the first Republican primary debate, Haley had around 3% of support from Republican voters polled.
Ramaswamy fell one percentage point to 9% after having a double-digit percentage in last week’s poll. Since moving up the poll earlier this year, Ramaswamy’s support has hovered in the 8% to 10% range.
Christie and Scott hold steady with 2% of the vote and are now considered distant candidates in the race.
Among voters who selected Trump first, 33% chose DeSantis as their next selection, while Ramaswamy was selected by 25% and Pence by 10%. This was similar to last week’s poll with DeSantis getting 33%, Ramaswamy 24% and Pence 11%.
Of voters who supported DeSantis first, 34% selected Trump as their next selection, 19% selected Ramaswamy and 18% selected Haley. Trump lost four percentage points to Ramaswamy in the vote from last week.
In the latest poll, Trump’s favorability ranks at 76% with an unfavorable rate of 22%. This week’s poll saw Trump’s favorability fall from 80% and his unfavorable rating increase from 19%.
DeSantis gets a 65% favorable ranking and 21% unfavorable ranking, compared to 67% and 21% respectively in last week’s poll.
Ramaswamy had a favorable ranking of 56% and unfavorable rating of 20%, compared to 58% and 18%, respectively, in last week’s poll.
Haley had her favorable rating fall below 50% last week to 46% in the latest poll and her unfavorable rating also rose from 20% to 23% in the latest poll.
Trump received the highest percentage of people hearing something positive about him at 38%, with 34% saying they heard something negative about him recently. This marked the first time since mid-July that more people heard something positive than negative about the former president.
A large portion of people said they had heard nothing positive or negative about DeSantis, Ramaswamy or Haley.
This marked the last poll of Republican voters before the second primary debate.
The second Republican primary debate will be held on Sept. 27 and air on Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOX)(NASDAQ: FOXA) unit Fox Business and will livestream on Rumble Inc (NASDAQ: RUM).
After sitting out the first debate, Trump is planning on skipping the second debate with a stop planned for Detroit to address UAW striking auto workers.
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