Anew poll found most Republicans would support Donald Trump in the 2024 primary for president if he were to run for office again.
A survey released Tuesday from the John Bolton Super PAC found 46 percent of likely general election voters would back Trump being the party’s nominee—the highest level of support of any potential presidential candidate polled by more than 30 points.
In second was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had 13 percent support. DeSantis has been praised by Republicans for his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Florida lifted restrictions before many other states.
Former Vice President Mike Pence ranked third in the hypothetical survey with 6 percent support among likely voters.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio all polled at 5 percent. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem had 1 percent support while Missouri Rep. Josh Hawley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott saw zero support.
Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said they were undecided about who they would support in 2024.
Trump said in late April that he is “100 percent” thinking about running for president for a third time.
At that time, he also said he would consider DeSantis as a potential running mate should he decide to mount another White House campaign. Trump has claimed a lot of people “love” a ticket featuring him and DeSantis.
Two potential 2024 hopefuls that are unlikely to get an invitation to be Trump’s running mate are Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Both Republicans have been critical of Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In a recent Vanity Fair interview, Trump slammed Christie as “disloyal” and said Haley made a mistake by making “a little nasty couple of comments.”
“When they speak badly about me, the party is not happy about it,” Trump told the magazine. “It’s pretty amazing. There’s not been anything like this.”
The survey from the John Bolton Super PAC found most Republican primary voters agree with Trump’s false allegations that the 2020 election was “rigged” and stolen by the Democrats.
More than half of those polled, 53 percent, said the statement “Joe Biden won the election and is truly president” was untrue. Just 36 percent said the statement was true.
But when it comes to a potential rematch, a majority of GOP primary voters said a fresh face would fare better against Biden. Fifty-one percent of those polled said a new Republican nominee would be a stronger candidate against Biden.
The poll surveyed 1,000 likely midterm general election voters, with an oversample of Republican voters. The survey of general election voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
