Former President Donald Trump remained the top choice of Republicans among more than a dozen potential 2024 presidential nominees, but a smaller field would put Florida Governor Ron DeSantis close to even, highlighting the risk Trump faces by freezing out other candidates.
(Bloomberg) — Former President Donald Trump remained the top choice of Republicans among more than a dozen potential 2024 presidential nominees, but a smaller field would put Florida Governor Ron DeSantis close to even, highlighting the risk Trump faces by freezing out other candidates.
Given a list of 14 potential contenders, Trump was the top choice for 42% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters in the Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. DeSantis was in second at 36%, followed by former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced on Tuesday, at 5%.
But when the options were narrowed to just four contenders, Trump was at 43% and DeSantis at 41%, essentially tied, followed by Haley at 6% and former Vice President Mike Pence at 4%. Trump’s early announcement made it difficult for potential rivals to set up campaign operations without alienating Trump and his loyal voters. So far, only Haley has said she will take him on.
“The early horse race comes down to just two names,” said Quinnipiac Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.
The poll showed either Trump or DeSantis would be competitive among all registered voters in a hypothetical general election face-off against President Joe Biden, who has not announced but is likely to run for reelection.
The survey was conducted Feb. 9-14, before Thursday’s release of excerpts from the Georgia grand jury that investigated allegations of interference by Trump and his allies in the 2020 election in the state.
The special grand jury concluded that perjury was committed by one or more witnesses and recommended the district attorney seek indictments, according to the excerpts. The panel also found no widespread fraud that would have overturned Biden’s win in the state.
Read more: Trump Grand Jury Urges DA to Seek Indictments for Perjury
The Quinnipiac survey of 1,429 registered voters nationwide has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. The margin of error among the survey’s 592 Republican and Republican-leaning voters was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
(Adds details on Georgia grand jury report starting sixth paragraph)
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