Former President Donald Trump owns a commanding lead over a hypothetical field of Republican candidates for the White House in 2024, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to a recent poll from Fox News.
The survey of phone responses of 1,006 random registered voters Feb. 19-22 has Trump at 43% among those asked to identify their top choice to secure the Republican National Committee's presidential nomination.
DeSantis, at 28%, easily stood out as the voters' second preference among the field of 15 projected candidates.
Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — who has already declared her candidacy for the White House — were running a distant third at 7% apiece.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., finished in fifth place at 2%.
Among the left-leaning registered voters in the survey, only 37% wanted President Joe Biden to seek reelection next year.
Conversely, 63% expressed the preference for a non-Biden candidate to win the Democratic National Committee's presidential nomination.
Biden has yet to officially declare for the presidency again, but last week, First Lady Jill Biden said her husband was ready to run in 2024.
A third component of the Fox News survey pressed voters on whether presidential candidates at age 75 or older should be required to submit to competency exams; 77% supported the hypothetical initiative, and only 20% were opposed.
Trump, 76, and Biden, 80, are already above the proposed age-75 threshold.
The Fox News poll has a margin-of-error rate of 3 percentage points.
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