Former President Donald Trump is still the top pick among Republican voters after skipping the first two GOP debates, according to a poll conducted for the New York Post.
The results also come just after Trump was ruled by a Manhattan judge to have committed fraud in his business by exaggerating his net worth.
According to the survey conducted by Leger, 62% of GOP voters want Trump as the party's nominee. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a distant second at 10%.
Trump's backing increased by 2% since the first debate, which he also skipped, the Post noted.
"I've sort of kind of had to convince myself nothing's gonna surprise me anymore with that, with this individual, but I just think that there's a strong segment of Republican voters that there's not much that's gonna sway them," Leger Executive Vice President Andrew Enns told The Post.
"I suspect that they feel that there's a lot of political motivation behind the accusations and charges, and so they're sticking to that sort of version of events, and it's going to be very difficult to move them off."
More than a third (37%) of Democrat-leaning voters say they expect Trump to be the nominee, facing Democrat President Joe Biden.
In a Trump-Biden general election, 43% said the 77-year-old indicted former president would defeat the 80-year-old current president. Only 32% believe Biden would win, and 26% said they are unsure.
Like other polls, however, Trump's support drops if he were to be found guilty or sent to prison ahead of the election. Only 36% said they believe Trump would beat Biden in such a scenario.
The survey spoke to 1,303 people weighted by age, gender, region, education, ethnicity, number of people in the household and past vote. It has a 2.3 percentage point margin of error.
Jack Gournell ✉
Jack Gournell, a Newsmax general assignment writer and editor, covering news, politics, media, and culture. He has over 35 years of experience in journalism.
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