Former US President Donald Trump dominates the field of potential candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential field, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.
In a hypothetical eight-people Republican presidential primary, Trump obtains an incredible 57 percent support among Republican voters, according to the survey, shared exclusively with The Hill.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a distant second but he is an early favorite for the nomination in the event that Trump doesn’t run again.
DeSantis garnered the support of 12 percent. Former Vice President Mike Pence is at number three with 11 percent support. No other would-be contender in the poll registers double-digit support.
DeSantis scores 30 percent support in a field that doesn’t include Trump, while Pence takes second place at 24 percent, according to the survey. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) gets 14 percent support in such a scenario.
Trump has said that only a doctor’s call could prevent him from participating in the 2024 presidential race. The poll underscores his hold over Republican voters.
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“It’s way too early to make predictions about 2024 as early polls usually end up not being a good predictor of what happens,” Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, said.
“Trump is starting out in a fairly strong position with Republicans while Biden and Harris have surprisingly little support among Democrats for incumbents. Trump is also starting out reasonably well-positioned for the general but he seems to be benefiting by being out of the limelight and no telling what would happen if he steps back in.”
Trump, who believes that the election was rigged by the Washington establishment in favor of Joe Biden, has alleged that the 2020 election was “the greatest Election Hoax in history.”
For months, Trump has floated the idea of a 2024 rematch against President Joe Biden. But in recent weeks, he has signaled strongly that he may be more likely to run again than not.
Recent opinion polls have depicted a gloomy landscape for Democrats as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections.
A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found that Republicans maintain a clear lead on the congressional ballot over Democrats as Biden’s approval rating plunges to a new low of 38 percent.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, say they do not want Biden to run for a second term in 2024, including a troubling 28 percent of Democrats.
Biden has proven a disappointment for many who voted him into office last year, with 16 percent of those surveyed saying he has done a worse job as president than they expected. Overall, 46 percent of Americans hold that view.
More worrying for Biden, another new survey by the Emerson College has found that Trump would beat the incumbent by two points – 45 to 43 percent – if the election was held today.
