With Trump and Nikki Haley now the only two declared Republican contenders for president in 2024, a brand-new survey was done before Haley ever announced her candidacy.
A new national survey examines the increasing pool of Republican presidential candidates for 2024, and former President Donald Trump is at the top of the list.
According to a nationwide public opinion poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos and released on Tuesday, Trump now has the support of 43% of registered Republicans, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in at a distant second with support from 31% of Republicans.
The survey, which was conducted between February 6-13, shows that former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been making preparations for a White House bid, has the backing of only 7% of likely voters.
Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, placed fourth in the poll with 4% support after declaring her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday. In Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, Haley will have a formal campaign kickoff ceremony. She previously served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. The only significant Republican contender to enter the 2024 contest for the presidency was Trump, until Haley’s declaration.
Pundits on the left and right have criticized Trump’s mid-November campaign launch and the provocative actions and statements he’s made since declaring his candidacy, calling into doubt his political longevity. As a result of the Republican Party’s disappointing showing in the midterm elections, when a “red wave” of voters turned out instead to support Democrats, Trump has been held responsible for helping to elevate divisive candidates who went on to lose in November’s general election.
Some polls taken in the previous few months show that DeSantis has surpassed the former president as the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Almost all polls show Trump and DeSantis as the frontrunners, with the rest of the candidates consistently scoring in the single digits.
In the past three years, former congressman Ron DeSantis has had a meteoric rise in favor among conservatives around the country, thanks in large part to his aggressive acts as a conservative cultural warrior, going after media and companies. Moreover, the red state of Florida was aided in its newfound status by the governor’s almost 20-point reelection victory.
Although DeSantis has repeatedly denied any interest in running for president in 2024, he has given several signals that he is considering a run for the presidency ever since his re-election victory speech last November. According to many in DeSantis’ inner circle, the future congressman will announce his candidacy for president sometime in the late spring or early summer, when the current Florida legislative session concludes.
Fox News reports that Republican sources indicate that the governor’s campaign team has begun contacting and identifying possible operatives for a bid for president.
Two percent of respondents said they would vote for former CIA director and subsequently Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or outspoken Trump critic Liz Cheney if they were Republican presidential candidates.
Both former governors of New Jersey, Chris Christie and Larry Hogan, who ran for president in 2016, polled at 1%, while their counterparts in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, and New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, polled at less than 1%.
Out of a total sample size of more than 4,000 persons in the United States, 1,465 were registered Republicans questioned by Reuters/Ipsos.