Former US President Donald Trump has marginally extended his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his presumed chief White House contender, in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll shared exclusively with The Hill on Friday.
The poll found that 55 percent of respondents who identified as Republicans said they would back Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary in a hypothetical matchup of other Republican contenders. DeSantis came in second place at 20 percent, while former Vice President Mike Pence came in third at 7 percent.
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) all polled at 5 percent or lower.
Another 2 percent said someone else, and 8 percent said they didn’t know or were unsure.
Several recent polls have shown that Trump maintains a lead in the GOP primary, even after he was indicted on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in New York.
The first GOP presidential debates and the primaries are still months away, and Republicans are quick to caution against writing off DeSantis, who hasn’t even yet officially declared his candidacy, but has been actively preparing for a campaign and is widely expected to make a final decision later this year.
Trump has confirmed his intentions to seek the 2024 Republican nomination, as have Haley and Hutchinson.
Pence has said he will make a decision “by the spring” about whether to seek the presidency in 2024.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also mentioned as a possible contender, but he officially announced last week that he has decided not to run.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)