Morning Consult Poll: Trump Up 50 on GOP Contenders

In the latest Morning Consult tracking poll, former President Donald Trump leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 50 percentage points among potential GOP primary voters, 64% to 14%.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is in third place with 10% support, tying a record high, followed by entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, with 6% support. They are followed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 3%, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, both at 1%.

The bulk of the GOP’s electorate (64%) would back Trump if the primary or caucus were held in their state today, down slightly from the record-high of 67% reached earlier this month. DeSantis, the No. 2 contender, is supported by 14% of potential GOP primary voters, according to the poll.

Trump is popular, with 75% of the party’s potential electorate, while 22% view him unfavorably, according to Morning Consult.

DeSantis' favorability rating has improved by 13 points over the past four weeks, with 67% expressing a favorable opinion and 19% expressing an unfavorable opinion of the Florida governor.

DeSantis is the second choice of 40% of potential GOP primary voters who are supporting Trump, followed by 22% who would back Ramaswamy, and 10% who would back Haley. 

Roughly three in 10 potential Republican primary voters (29%) who do not support Trump as their first choice said he is their second choice, followed by 20% who said DeSantis, 16% who said Haley, and 12% who named Ramaswamy. 

One in five Trump supporters said they do not know where their loyalties would fall if Trump weren’t in the race, compared with 9% of those backing someone other than him.

The Morning Consult survey was conducted Nov. 24-26, 2023 among 3,944 potential Republican primary voters, and has an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 to 3 percentage points for responses shown.

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