A new Newsmax/McLaughlin national survey shows former President Donald Trump maintaining his strong national lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Though DeSantis appears to be firmly ensconced in second place, Trump garnered the support of 48% of respondents. DeSantis pulled 19% with other GOP aspirants trailing him.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., followed with 14%, 4%, and 4% respectively.
They were trailed by former Vice President Mike Pence and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley at 2% and Michigan industrialist Perry Johnson at 1%.
The Trump juggernaut appears to be crushing many new entrants into the race. Outside contenders like Asa Hutchinson, Doug Burgum, Francis Suarez, Will Hurd, and Larry Elder came in with zero percent.
The Newsmax/McLaughlin poll also shows Republican voters take social issues seriously.
A majority of Republican primary voters – 68% – described themselves as pro-life, with 48% of voters describing themselves as "strongly pro-life."
Most GOP voters also identify themselves by their faith, with 54% describing themselves as Protestants, 60% as evangelical or born-again, and 22% identified as Catholic. Jews made up 3% of those sampled.
Newsmax's poll of 800 likely Republican primary voters was conducted Aug. 17 to Aug. 20 through several different interview methods, including phone calls. It has a plus or minus 3.4 percentage-point margin of sampling error.
The results come as support for DeSantis appears to have leveled off over the past month from his highs this year.
According to a FiveThirtyEight average, he currently has about 15% support. DeSantis was within 3 points of Trump in February.
Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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