After his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, the former president still holds a significant advantage over his other current and potential Republican rivals in a fictitious Republican primary survey.
According to a poll conducted by Yahoo News and YouGov after the grand jury cleared the indictment against Trump, the former president has a significant lead over any potential Republican challenger, with 52% of the vote to the governor’s 27% of Florida Ron DeSantis. Former Vice President Mike Pence came in second with 3% of the vote, followed by Nikki Haley (5%) and then Ron DeSantis (21%).
11% of respondents indicated they were unsure, and other existing and potential candidates received 2% or less.
57% to 31%, with 12% saying they weren’t sure, is Trump’s margin of victory against DeSantis in a head-to-head comparison. Republicans and independents who lean Republican were surveyed.
According to Yahoo, Trump now has a much larger lead over DeSantis than in his poll less than two weeks ago, when the former president had just an 8-point advantage over DeSantis. In the Yahoo and YouGov poll conducted in February, DeSantis had a 4-point lead over Trump.
According to the latest poll, barely a third of Republicans and independents who identify as Republicans would prefer someone other than Trump to represent the Republican Party in 2024. That figure is three points higher than the preferred answer of 51 % of previous poll for Trump.
However, the study found that when respondents outside the GOP electorate are included, the results are more ambiguous or lean towards Trump.
39% of people said they were thrilled or happy with Trump’s indictment, while 37% said they were unhappy or angry about it. On the subject of the indictment against Trump, respondents were split, with 43% believing political bias is the main driver and 42% believing a sincere desire to hold Trump accountable.
Still, 45% of those polled said they believed Trump fabricated financial documents to hide a silent payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Only 26% of respondents said he hadn’t and 29% said they weren’t sure.
Trump trails Vice President Biden by two points among registered voters in a hypothetical rematch, 45% to 43% for Biden.
With 1,089 American adults, the survey was conducted March 30-31. There was a margin of error of 3.3 points.