According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Friday, Donald Trump is leading Ron DeSantis by almost 40 percentage points in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, despite declining to debate DeSantis and other rivals.
The survey indicates that half of the Republican respondents who followed the party’s first debate on Wednesday were more open to supporting DeSantis’ bid, which could be seen as positive news for his campaign. He has been seeing a decline in opinion polls this summer.
However, the poll shows that DeSantis is still in a distant second place with only 13% of support from Republican respondents, while Trump, the former president, has 52% support. This is slightly higher than the 47% he received in an earlier Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in early August.
The two-day poll gathered online responses from 1,004 U.S. adults, including 347 Republicans across the country. The credibility interval, which measures precision, had a range of about 6 percentage points in either direction for Republicans.
During the Milwaukee debate, DeSantis and seven other Republican hopefuls participated, while a pre-recorded interview of Trump with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson was posted simultaneously on X (formerly known as Twitter) to divert viewers.
Before the debate, Trump had stated that he saw no political benefit in participating, given his significant lead in opinion polls, despite facing indictments in four separate criminal cases. The results of the Reuters/Ipsos poll seem to support his decision.
Although DeSantis was on center stage at the debate, he was overshadowed by tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for much of the raucous two-hour event. Ramaswamy clashed with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and other candidates.
About half of the Republican respondents said they were more likely to support DeSantis based on what they had heard about the debate. Approximately four in 10 Republicans said they were more likely to back Ramaswamy or Haley based on the debate.
However, many respondents had not warmed up enough to Ramaswamy and Haley to say they were now supporting their bids. Only 5% of Republicans outright backed Ramaswamy, and only 4% supported Haley, similar to their levels of support before the debate.
Former Vice President Mike Pence received 6% support from Republicans, but only one in five Republicans who followed the debate said they were now more open to supporting him.
Among the Republicans polled, 59% had followed the debate. Of those, 19% said they watched it live, while the rest watched some clips or saw news coverage about it. Forty-one percent stated they hadn’t seen or heard anything about it.
In a hypothetical match-up between President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, the larger pool of respondents, including Democrats and independents, were asked who they would pick “if the election for president were held today.” Trump had 38% support, while Biden had 32%. The remaining respondents were unsure, wouldn’t vote, or would choose another candidate.
On Thursday, Trump’s mug shot was released after he was booked at an Atlanta jail on more than a dozen felony charges. This is part of a wide-ranging criminal case stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
