President Donald J. Trump has maintained his sizeable lead in the Republican Party’s race for the nomination. A new Rasmussen Reports national phone and online survey found 45 percent of likely Republican primary voters would support Trump. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were next highest with each man receiving nine percent.
Trump’s support dropped just four points since the first debate, in which he declined to participate. Vivek Ramaswamy suffered the biggest drop, falling from 11 percent in the pre-debate poll to five percent in this latest poll.
The poll included 1,418 likely Republican primary voters and was derived from a sample of 2,088 likely voters. Sixty-five percent of unaffiliated voters and 48 percent of Democrats said they are likely to participate in the Republican primary. Forty-two percent of self-identified liberals said it is at least somewhat likely they’ll vote in the 2024 Republican primaries.
Those Democrats and unaffiliated voters are less likely than Republicans to support Trump. Senator Tim Scott and Christie both receive “significant support” from self-identified liberals who said they will vote in the 2024 Republican primaries.
