Former President Donald Trump has a record 57-point lead over his Republican challengers, according to the latest Morning Consult Poll, one of the last to be released before the Iowa caucuses kick off the 2024 GOP primary cycle.
Although Trump has pulled 69% GOP primary support in the poll before, his lead is the largest ever recorded in the final poll before the Iowa caucus:
- Trump 69%
- Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley 12%
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 11%
- Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy 5%
- Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson 1%
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was also in the poll, but he received less than 1% support and had already officially suspended his campaign last week.
The Morning Consult results also register the largest lead in all of the recent nationwide polls included in the RealClearPolitics polling average, which show Trump leading by nearly 50 points on average.
Trump is also pulling 58% support for the November general election in Iowa against President Joe Biden, according to Morning Consult, up 8 points from Trump's 50% support in November.
"DeSantis is the second choice of 41% of potential GOP primary voters who are supporting Trump, followed by 24% who would back Ramaswamy and 15% who would back Haley," according to Morning Consult polling analyst Eli Yokley. "Over a third of potential Republican primary voters who do not support Trump as their first choice said he is their second choice, followed by 21% who said DeSantis and 17% who said Haley."
Also, "17% of Trump supporters said they do not know where their loyalties would fall if Trump weren't in the race, compared with 11% of those backing someone other than him," Yokley said.
Morning Consult polled 3,926 potential Republican primary voters Jan. 11-13. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.