The latest Fox News survey spells good news for former President Donald Trump. The GOP frontrunner appears to be widening his lead with primary voters as the candidates head into the home stretch before the Iowa Caucus officially kicks things off on January 15th.
Former President Donald Trump keeps gaining ground in the Republican presidential nomination contest, as fewer than one third of GOP primary voters now back all his rivals combined, according to the latest Fox News survey.
Trump's support stands at 69% in the primary race. That's up 7 points since November and fully 26 points since February.
Ron DeSantis receives 12% support (down 1 point since November), Nikki Haley gets 9% (-1), Vivek Ramaswamy 5% (-2), Chris Christie 2% (-1), and Asa Hutchinson 1% (steady).
I know I'm not alone in observing that voters and pundits alike should always bear in mind that polls are merely a snapshot of sentiment at a given point in time, and no votes have been cast. Still, there are trends to note, and momentum unquestionably plays a role as voters make up their minds and head into the voting booth/caucus room. People tend to like to back winners.
But there is something interesting to note about voters' second choice, as revealed by the survey. While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley have remained within a couple of percentage points of one another overall, DeSantis is the second choice of Trump supporters by an overwhelming margin, with tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy a distant second and Haley in third.
When asked their second choice, the top picks among Trump supporters are DeSantis 50%, Ramaswamy 20%, and Haley 14%.
Given, that may not matter ultimately, as it doesn't appear that Donald Trump is going anywhere (but up), despite every shred of lawfare his detractors can dredge up — and the kitchen sink — being thrown at him. But given the rough and tumble nature of the primary thus far, and the not-so-friendly rivalry between those in the Trump camp and those in the DeSantis camp, it is rather interesting to note that 50 percent of Trump's supporters nevertheless prefer DeSantis as their second choice.
We'll have to wait a few weeks to see how that translates in Iowa, but one thing that is clear in the meantime: Things don't look so hot for incumbent President Joe Biden in a general election matchup against the Republican contenders — and he's lost ground in the past few months.
In hypothetical general election matchups against President Joe Biden, Haley is ahead by 6 points, while Trump is up by 4 (neither advantage is statistically significant). DeSantis and Biden tie. As recently as August, Biden was narrowly ahead of all three of them.
Moreover, as much as Donald Trump is disliked by a significant portion of the electorate, with a net favorability rating of negative 10 (45 percent to 55 percent), he bests Joe Biden on that measure. The sitting president has a net favorability rating of negative 17 (41 percent to 58 percent). And, per the survey, if the election were held today, Trump would best him by four points. Obviously, a lot can happen between now and next November, but the odds of Biden improving his position with voters don't look so hot.