Although former President Donald Trump maintains the pole position in the 2024 race for the GOP nomination, unease persists among Republicans about renominating the man who lost in 2020.
According to a new NPR/Marist poll, 54% of Republican voters would prefer to nominate "someone else," whereas only 42% have their hearts set on Trump. That's probably good enough for Trump to triumph over a divided field — in fact, Trump support has risen since he announced his presidential bid, from just 35% in November. But it's telling that the number wanting "someone else" has not changed at all since November, when it was also 54%. Republicans who don't want Trump are not being won over. Then again, he hasn't been alienating new Republicans, either.
IMAGINE THERE'S NO PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS
For the sake of comparison, Democrats are more united around President Joe Biden than Republicans are around Trump. Fifty percent prefer to renominate Biden over "someone else." However, that is pretty weak, considering that he is an incumbent president.
Another noteworthy result in this poll is that Trump's favorability rating among Republicans has come down somewhat since the last time Marist College measured it. In November, 79% of Republicans said they viewed Trump favorably. This time around, that number is down to 68%, his lowest rating among Republicans since he was elected president in 2016.
In fairness, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has only a 66% favorable rating, but he also has a lot of room to grow, as 23% of Republican voters say they don't know enough to form an opinion of him. Forty-one percent of Republicans view former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) favorably, whereas 46% either don't know who she is or don't know enough to form an opinion.