Former President Donald Trump opened up a 28-point lead over his strongest potential Republican presidential primary opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to the Morning Consult tracking poll released Tuesday.

The result of the survey of nearly 3,400 likely GOP primary voters, conducted March 17-19, appears to confirm the assessment of many pundits on the right and left that the perceived selective prosecution of Trump by a blue-state, Democrat D.A. would only grow his popularity among Republican voters.

Trump announced his potential arrest at the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his Truth Social platform Saturday, March 18.

“As Trump awaits potential indictment on charges related to a 2016 hush money scheme with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, he has posted one of his largest polling leads in the 2024 Republican primary. The latest survey shows 54% of potential primary voters support the former president, compared with 26% who are backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis,” the Morning Counsel release on the “2024 GOP Primary Tracker” poll states.

The new poll shows DeSantis descending to a tie for his lowest level of support since Morning Consult began tracking potential GOP presidential primary candidates in December.

The poll also found former vice president and likely presidential contender Mike Pence’s support falling after Pence made his strongest criticism of then-President Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 to date, at the annual Gridiron dinner for journalists March 11 in Washington, D.C.

Morning Consult reports: “Pence’s Popularity Takes Hit: Former Vice President Mike Pence’s favorability rating among potential primary voters declined from 60% to 55% during a week that featured news coverage of his condemnation of Trump’s behavior surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Over the same time period, the share who said they’d recently heard something negative about Pence, who is polling at 7% in the nominating race, increased from 15% to 24%.”

The poll’s respondents were among potential GOP primary voters who were asked whom they would vote for “if the 2024 Republican primary or caucus were held in their state today.”

The Morning Consult survey was “conducted March 17-19, 2023, among 3,394 potential Republican primary voters, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points,” according to the release.

The poll shows maverick entrepreneur and recently announced presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy getting on the board with a 1% rating, tying potential GOP candidates Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Trump-administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Former South Carolina governor and Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, came in at 4 percent, while outspoken Never-Trumper Liz Cheney received 3% support.

This article was originally published by the WND News Center.

This post originally appeared on WND News Center.