Former President Donald Trump holds a strong lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination about two months before the first GOP caucus in Iowa next year, according to a new poll from CBS News.
More than half of likely GOP primary voters would vote for Trump if the election were held today, according to CBS. Just under one in five would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and about one in 10 would vote for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
- Trump: 61%
- DeSantis: 18%
- Haley: 9%
- Vivek Ramaswamy: 5%
- South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott: 4%
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 2%
- North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum: 1%
- Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson: Less than 1%
This same group of voters also ranks Trump as the most likely to beat President Joe Biden in the 2024 election:
- Trump: 69%
- DeSantis: 43%
- Haley: 23%
- Scott: 18%
- Ramaswamy: 17%
- Christie: 11%
- Burgum: 10%
- Hutchinson: 8%
Most Trump supporters, 81%, said they would “enthusiastically support” Trump if he is the Republican nominee, while 21% of likely GOP primary voters who plan to vote for a different candidate say the same. Some 19% of Trump supporters and 61% of non-Trump supporters among likely GOP voters have reservations about him or would only support him because he is the GOP nominee. Meanwhile, 0% of Trump supporters would not support him if he were to become the nominee, but 18% of likely GOP voters who support a different candidate would not vote for Trump in 2024 even if he were the nominee.
CBS News and YouGov polled 2,185 adult US residents October 31-November 3, 2023, including 556 likely Republican primary voters, with a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points for the full sample and +/- 5.5 percentage points for likely GOP primary voters.