Trump Maintains Strong Lead Over DeSantis in Republican Nomination Race

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey, former President Donald Trump still maintains a significant lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination despite his absence from the first Republican candidates’ debate in 2024.

The study, which came to a conclusion on Friday, showed that among Republican respondents, Trump had a large lead of about 40 percentage points over DeSantis. Trump’s decision to skip the debate did not appear to affect his dominance, as only a small majority of Republican respondents (52%), up from 47% in a previous Reuters/Ipsos poll taken in early August, expressed support for him.

Republican responders to the first debate gave DeSantis 13% of their support, keeping him in second place. After a decline in the polls earlier in the summer, the team had anticipated a boost from the occasion to help resuscitate DeSantis’ waning popularity.

1,004 American adults participated in the two-day online survey, including 347 Republicans. Republicans’ credibility interval, a precision indicator, was calculated to be approximately 6 percentage points in either direction.

DeSantis found himself overshadowed by software entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for the most of the debate despite sharing the platform with seven other Republican candidates. Ramaswamy engaged in vigorous discussions with former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and other candidates. However, roughly half of the Republican respondents said that after hearing about the discussion, they were more likely to back DeSantis.

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Trump’s big lead in the polls remained mostly unchanged even though DeSantis’ performance appeared to have attracted some favorable notice. Due to his strong political position in the polls, he had earlier expressed doubt about the advantages of participation in the discussion. The findings of the Reuters/Ipsos poll appear to support that viewpoint.

Beyond the Republican race, the survey also considered a potential matchup between current Democrat President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.With 38% of the vote versus Biden’s 32% among a larger group of responders that included Democrats and independents, Trump won. The remaining individuals either expressed doubt, said they wouldn’t vote, or said they favored a different candidate. 

Republicans reported following the debate to some extent, according to 59% of those polled, which attracted the attention of the audience during the debate. 19% of them said they watched it live, while the rest watched videos or read news articles. 41% of respondents, however, insisted they had not come across any information concerning the controversy.

The poll’s findings indicate that Trump’s power within the Republican Party will likely continue to grow as the 2024 election cycle progresses, potentially influencing the dynamics of the nomination contest and the larger political landscape.