Former President Donald Trump's commanding lead of the GOP presidential primary has not abated in the roughly two weeks since special counsel Jack Smith announced a four-count felony indictment against Trump over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a survey.
A Morning Consult survey released on Tuesday showed Trump at 57% support among Republican primary voters, a 41 percentage-point gap over his closest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), at 16%. No other candidate polled in the double digits after Trump and DeSantis, but entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, with 9% support, is in third place over former Vice President Mike Pence at 7%.
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Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy were the only three candidates to have a favorability score above 50%. In another sign of his front-runner status, 76% of those surveyed view Trump favorably compared with DeSantis at 65% and Ramaswamy at 55%. Pence, who has stepped up his own attacks against Trump since Smith's indictment, had a 40% unfavorable score with Republicans. Although 48% of those surveyed did view Pence favorably. The only other candidate with a higher unfavorable score than Pence is noted anti-Trump candidate Chris Christie at 47%. Only 28% view him favorably.
The survey conducted Aug. 11-13 reflected voter's attitudes in the wake of Smith's federal indictment earlier this month but did not capture voter sentiment in the wake of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's sweeping 41-count indictment Monday night against Trump and 18 others for his actions in Georgia following the 2020 cycle. Trump faces 13 indictments, including racketeering charges and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, among other charges.
One worrying point for Republicans eager to retake the White House next year is that President Joe Biden leads both Trump and DeSantis in a hypothetical matchup. Voters would support Biden over Trump, 43%-41%, and Biden over DeSantis, 43%-37%, if the election were held today.
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The results are a sign that the five indictments Trump faces over four criminal cases may not hurt him in the primary but could hurt Trump in a general election rematch with Biden and that Attorney General Merrick Garland's decision to appoint a special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation may not hurt his father's reelection campaign.
Morning Consult has tracked the primary race since December of last year. This week's survey has an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 1 to 2 percentage points.