Donald Trump has not locked in all of his voters yet as a new poll suggests nearly half of Trump supporters are considering a different candidate.
Fox News has more…
While recent polls suggest former President Donald Trump is currently leading the GOP presidential primary race, a large portion of his supporters are still considering other 2024 candidates, according to a new poll.
A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 54% of Republican respondents are supporting Trump in his third presidential bid. However, 46% are still considering voting for a different candidate in 2024.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the choice candidate to 17% of GOP voters, receiving the second-most support among the primary contenders. The margins were tighter, however, in a one-on-one matchup between Trump and his Florida rival, 62% to 31% — with Trump still holding a significant lead.
Despite the poll finding that Trump currently holds a major lead in the crowded primary field, DeSantis leads as the alternative candidate to the respondents who said they are not initially supporting either the Florida governor or Trump.
Every other Republican contender in the race, such as former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, all received under 4% support in the poll.
Among the respondents supporting these candidates, 47% said they would choose DeSantis over the former president if they were the options, while only 29% said they would support Trump over DeSantis.
The poll also found that 51% of respondents believe Trump committed serious federal crimes involving recent investigations into the former president, after most recently being indicted in June by Special Counsel Jack Smith on 37 federal counts relating to the unlawful retention of classified documents.
Here’s the lowdown:
The poll of 1,329 registered voters nationwide, including an over-sample of 818 registered Republican voters, was conducted in English and Spanish on cellular and landline phones from July 23-27. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.67 percentage points for all registered voters, and plus or minus 3.96 percentage points for the likely Republican primary electorate.
The news here isn’t about DeSantis because clearly he has his work cut out for him. But what I found surprising was that nearly half of the people supporting Trump aren’t persuaded enough yet to make him their final candidate. I mean, what more can Trump do that he hasn’t already done to make the case? He’s been president for four years already and we’ve all seen him in action. If that wasn’t enough to convince them, I’m not sure what will and it makes me think they are ripe to pick another candidate. DeSantis should be that candidate. That’s right, I said it.