Trump surges to a 30 point lead over DeSantis: poll
A potential indictment isn’t good for most politicians’ poll numbers — but Donald Trump isn’t most politicians.
The former president, 76, has surged to a 30-percentage-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis among Republican primary voters nationwide, according to a Fox News survey released Wednesday night.
Trump has the backing of 54% of those surveyed compared to 24% for DeSantis — double the margin the 45th president enjoyed last month, when he led DeSantis by 43% to 28%.
No other Republican cracked double digits in the poll, with former Vice President Mike Pence coming in third with 6% support and former Rep. Liz Cheney and ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley each receiving 3%.
The poll was conducted after Trump claimed in a posting to his five million followers on Truth Social that he would be arrested by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 election.
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” Trump said in an all-caps message on March 18.
That Tuesday came and went without Trump being indicted, and the Manhattan grand jury now has plans to recess for the next month, leaving the possibility of charges up in the air.
“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,” Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts Fox News surveys with Democrat Chris Anderson, told the outlet.
“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,” he said.
While Trump is riding a wave of support, most Democratic primary voters would still like to see their party mount a difference candidate than President Biden in 2024.
The poll found that 52% of Democrats want somebody else in 2024, down slightly from the 53% who said the same in February.
Only 44% want Biden to be the nominee, up from 37% last month.
“We haven’t seen much movement at all in attitudes towards Biden this past year, but what we have has been positive,” Democratic pollster Anderson told Fox News. “He’s holding the line and slowly bringing more people into the fold.”
The poll surveyed 1,007 registered voters between March 24 and March 27. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus five percentage points for Democratic primary voters and plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points for Republican primary voters.
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