As Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is mulling an independent run for president, a new poll is showing deleterious effects on President Joe Biden's reelection hopes.
Former President Donald Trump (40%) leads Biden (36%) and RFK Jr. (14%) by 4 points in a hypothetical three-way race for president in 2024, according to likely voters in the latest Echelon Insights poll released Monday night.
Also, Trump (46%) leads Biden (43%) by 3 points in a head-to-head test, although that is within the 4 percentage point margin of error.
Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis began his presidential campaign arguing he would be better suited to lead the party against Biden, but DeSantis is trailing Biden in his head-to-head test in the poll by 1 point (42%-41%).
Trump retains an overwhelming 51-point lead over DeSantis and the GOP primary field, according to Echelon Insights:
- Trump 62%
- DeSantis 11%
- Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy 10%
- Former Vice President Mike Pence 5%
- Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley 5%
- Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. 1%
- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 1%
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum 0%, former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and conservative broadcast Larry Elder all received less than 1% support. "Someone else" received 1% and there were 3% undecided.
The Republican Party is generally strong in the poll, leading the generic congressional ballot in the poll by 4 points (48% to 44%).
Echelon Insights polled 1,011 likely voters, including 402 likely Republican primary voters Sept. 25-28. The poll results have a margin of error of plus/minus 4 percentage points.