Republicans continue to overwhelmingly support Donald Trump in his campaign to be the party’s nominee as a new poll continued a bad week for Ron DeSantis.
A majority of Republican voters believe that Trump will be their strongest nominee in the 2024 election as they continuing to brush aside the criminal indictments and investigations, according to national Monmouth University poll released July 25.
When asked whom they would like to see as the Republican nominee for president in 2024, 46% of GOP-aligned and leaning voters named the former president, followed by 20% naming DeSantis. In a primary ballot question that explicitly lists 14 announced candidates, Trump’s support increases to 54% while DeSantis’ vote share barely moves (22%)—no other candidate gets above 5%, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
DeSantis Down
For the Florida governor, who is cutting back staff as funding has slowed and has come under fire for a new K-12 curriculum for social studies that teaches that enslaved Black people personally benefited from slavery because they learned valuable skills, DeSantis’ efforts to paint himself as both a stronger candidate and a more effective leader than Trump is a message that is not connecting with GOP voters.
In a head-to-head contest, Trump garners 55% support and DeSantis gets 35%. These results are relatively unchanged to a Monmouth poll taken two months ago when DeSantis officially launched his campaign.
Trump Trounces Ron
Just 22% of Republican voters say that DeSantis would be a stronger candidate in the general election. More alarmingly for the Florida governor is that 47% say he would actually be weaker than Trump; 26% say DeSantis would be just as strong as Trump.
On the question of governing, 19% feel DeSantis would be more effective than Trump in running the country and getting his policies enacted, compared with 49% responding Trump would be more effective than DeSantis. Thirty percent say the two men would be equally as effective.
Even the good news for DeSantis has band undertones—while he gets a largely positive rating (65% favorable and 18% unfavorable), it has eroded from his top result of 80% favorable in February poll.
“DeSantis has not made any headway. The arguments that he’d be a stronger candidate and a more effective president than Trump have both fallen flat,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, in a press statement with the poll’s release.
Christie Unfavorables Rise
As for New Jersey’s favored son, Christie continues to face an uphill battle within his own party as he centers his campaign attacking Trump’s conduct and record. Christie currently has an 18% favorable view from his fellow Republicans. But his 55% unfavorable is the largest for all announced candidates, growing even more negative since the Spring when he entered the race.
In a one-on-one contest against, Christie would get 12% of the vote to Trump’s 82%.
The Jersey Shore polling outfit’s survey shows why Christie’s campaign is not gaining traction—45% of Republican voters see Trump as definitely the strongest candidate to beat President Joe Biden in 2024, and another 24% think he is probably the strongest candidate.
Just one-third of GOP voters say another Republican would definitely (13%) or probably (18%) be a stronger candidate than Trump, unchanged from three months earlier.
Legal Worries?
Republicans have an overwhelmingly positive view of Trump (77% favorable and 18% unfavorable), which has been fairly stable since Monmouth began tracking GOP candidate ratings at the beginning of the year.
While the poll was most completed before Trump announced that he received a second target letter from special counsel Jack Smith into the actions after the 2020 election, the results show party die hards are brushing past his legal problems.
Nearly half (47%) of Republican voters are not at all concerned about these charges being a drag on Trump, compared to 27% (11% very and 16% somewhat) express any real degree of concern that the criminal indictments against Trump would make him a weaker candidate against Biden in the general election.
“Trump has successfully pushed a politics of grievance where the system is out to get you. In that light, the criminal charges seem to make him an even stronger advocate in the eyes of many Republicans,” said Murray.
Head to Head Races
When all 14 candidates are included in a primary ballot test, none other than Trump and DeSantis get close to breaking out of single digits. The top performers in this group are business entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (5%), Christie (3%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (3%), former Vice President Mike Pence (3%), and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) (3%).
Views of Scott (49% favorable and 7% unfavorable) and Haley (42% favorable and 20% unfavorable) have been fairly stable. Pence rating (35% favorable and 45% unfavorable) was in net positive territory until the current poll. At least a third of Republican voters are familiar enough to rate unfavorable).
As for the makeup of the party, 51% (31% strongly and 21% somewhat) identify as a supporter of the MAGA movement (31% strongly and 21% somewhat). Trump commands the backing of 3 in 4 strong MAGA supporters and about half of those who support MAGA somewhat.
A pathetic field of cowards, every one of them (other than Christie who hasn’t got a chance)—especially Pence. The crowd tried to HANG HIM! But he insists 1/6 wasn’t an insurrection. These are the same (choose your favorite adjective) who made a big issue of “Bengazi” which turned out to be a big nothing after Trey Gowdy spent around $10MILLION taxpayer dollars and ended up telling people to remove the “Hillary Lied, 4 died” bumper stickers from their cars, because she didn’t lie, and now they and what was once called “the Grand Old Party” continue to support a genuine criminal who is NOT being “witch-hunted” but who did try to engineer an insurrection and a riot (gonna be wild!) and who did keep a huge trove of classified documents after being given an opportunity to return them, after which he would not have been charged with taking them (as Biden and Pence were not charged after returning what they both accidentally had), but no! Trump had to have his lawyers insist he’d returned all but instead kept 100s and THEN there was a search warrant and THEN a huge stash of highly secret docs was discovered. He is responsible for what’s happening to him and no one else. That all of these candidates will continue supporting this low life is truly pathetic….
I lost what family remained in Europe in 1939 in the Final Solution. Trump and the GOP make Hitler & Co. look like a class act. If they return to power, this nation will be a has-been, and emigration would be in order.
Many Polls have been misleading!! AND; Monmouth isn’t exactly the last word on IT!! Or’n on what is Is!! U.S. Elections had better straighten Up & Quick, cause many feel that it’s Rigged by the Rich & has become a Republic for’n Corporations & their interests!! AND; Freedoms & Democracy is circumvented by the affluent!!//
Its hilarious to watch the media whores at NJ news and NBC, CNN , NYTimes and all the rest of the captured state media outlets shill for Trump. THey are intentionally running stories designed to outrage Trumps base and get more people to support him bc the dems think that brain dead Biden ( Biden has advanced Alzheimers disease and anyone that supports him is a fool) is a better choice to run against trump and win. Mr Not a trumper above reveals a particular kind of naivety and ignorance particularly characteristic of liberals. He resorts to typical liberal tactics; calling people names instead of addressing the issues. Dems and liberals and many reps will do absolutely anything for power b/c thats all they care about.
The left and right is really a big bird of prey and its preying on YOU.
only in the diseased mind of a clueless liberal could this be remotely true. I lost relatives in the holocaust as well. THe democratic party is much closer to a totalitarian movement than trump and reps ever could be. THe entire progressive movement is fascistic. THe nazis were “socialists”…. its right there in the name. And the modern dem party wants to turn the US and really the entire world into a fascist corporatist dictatorship.