‘A Republican candidate would have to find it pretty daunting’: Trump soars over DeSantis in new Fox poll

Whatever Donald Trump is doing, it’s working.

The former president now has a commanding lead over his as-of-yet undeclared opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among Republican primary voters, according to a new Fox News poll, released on Wednesday.

(Video: Fox News)

With 15 announced and potential candidates for the 2024 GOP nomination to choose from, Trump has, since just February, doubled his lead, and now towers over DeSantis by 30 points (54% – 24%).

Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume called the lead “daunting” for any other Republican in the race.

“It’s pretty early, Bret,” he told “Special Report” host Bret Baier. “But the lead has expanded noticeably.”

“I mean, it was what? It was 15 points or so in our earlier poll,” Hume continued. “Now it’s 30 for Trump. Now, I don’t know how firm or hard that is in terms of the sentiment. But, anybody looking at that now as a Republican candidate would have to find it pretty daunting to see a guy sitting well above 50% and nobody else really near him.”

No one, besides DeSantis, even made it out of the single digits.

“Mike Pence comes in third with 6%, Liz Cheney and Nikki Haley receive 3% each, and Greg Abbott comes in at 2%. All others receive 1% support or less, and just 3% are unsure,” the poll found.

With the Manhattan grand jury in the so-called “hush money” Stormy Daniels case against Trump now on hiatus for a month, Baier noted that, on Capitol Hill, “not a lot of people are signing up” to support different candidates.

“No, not as of yet,” said Politico’s Olivia Beavers. “But there’s only two people in the race.”

“We’ve been polling House Republicans, including some of Donald Trump’s most ardent and loyal supporters in the House,” she continued. “And we were asking them, ‘Are you supporting him again?’ And we’re ticking up to about four dozen Republicans in the Senate and the House.”

“Only a fraction were willing to tell us that they were actually behind him again,” she added, claiming “there is an appetite to move in a different direction.”

Byron York of the Washington Examiner downplayed the significance of a national poll, because, “the Republican nominee is not chosen by a national election.”

“It’s the old path of Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina,” he said, noting that in some polls, DeSantis is doing “far, far better against Trump,” pulling ahead of him in Iowa and tied with him in New Hampshire.

“But this new Fox News poll does show that Trump is extremely popular with the Republican base and the Republican Party,” York acknowledged.  “And so far, Desantis is not even formally running – that doesn’t exist. Trump is enormously popular – far more so than Desantis in the Republican Party across the country.”

Meanwhile, the Fox News poll also found that, among Democrats, the majority would like to see President Biden replaced.

“On the other side of the aisle, 52% of Democratic primary voters would like to see someone other than Biden as their party’s presidential nominee, about the same as last month (53%),” Fox News reports. “Some 44% want Biden to be the nominee, up from 37% in February.”

“We haven’t seen much movement at all in attitudes towards Biden this past year, but what we have has been positive,” says Democrat Chris Anderson.

“He’s holding the line and slowly bringing more people into the fold,” said Anderson, who, along with Republican pollster Daron Shaw, conducts Fox News surveys.

And according to Shaw, the potential indictment of Trump by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is only boosting the former president in the polls.

“The rumor that Trump is going to be indicted by the district attorney in Manhattan has helped him quite a bit among Republican primary voters,” Shaw said. “They view the case as politically motivated and it reanimates feelings that Trump is still fighting forces they see as corrupt and out of control.”

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Melissa Fine

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles