Trump tops DeSantis in fresh 2024 GOP presidential primary poll, other potential candidates in single digits

Former President Donald Trump leads a field of actual and potential Republican presidential contenders in a new national poll looking at the growing 2024 GOP nomination field.

Trump stands at 43% among registered Republicans in a Reuters/Ipsos national public opinion survey released on Tuesday, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in second place with 31% support. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s been making moves towards launching a White House run, stands at 7% support in the poll, which was conducted Feb. 6-13. 

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who on Tuesday announced her candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination, was in fourth place in the survey, with 4% support. Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, formally launches her campaign with an event in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday. Until Haley’s announcement, Trump was the only major Republican candidate to have jumped into the 2024 White House race.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the South Carolina Statehouse, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Columbia, S.C.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The first three months of Trump’s latest White House bid have raised questions about his political durability, with pundits from both the left and the criticizing his mid-November campaign launch as well as controversial actions and comments he’s made since declaring his candidacy. In the wake of a lackluster performance by the GOP in the midterm elections — in which the party underperformed in what many expected to be a red wave election — Trump has also been blamed for elevating polarizing Republican nominees who ended up losing in November.

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While the former president was once the overall front-runner in the early 2024 GOP nomination polls, DeSantis has eclipsed him in some surveys over the past few months. Nearly every poll indicates Trump and DeSantis as the favorites, with everyone else in the single digits.

DeSantis, a former congressman, saw his popularity soar among conservatives across the country the past three years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a conservative culture warrior, going after media and corporations. And the Florida governor’s nearly 20-point reelection victory helped transform the one-time blockbuster battleground into a red state.

Governor Ron DeSantis gestures during a news conference where he spoke of new law enforcement legislation that will be introduced during the upcoming session, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) (AP)

DeSantis routinely dismisses talk of a 2024 White House run, but he’s dropped plenty of hints of a possible presidential bid since his re-election victory speech in November. Sources in DeSantis’ wider orbit say any presidential campaign launch would come in the late spring or early summer, after the end of Florida’s current legislative session. 

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But Republican sources confirm to Fox News that the governor’s political team has already started reaching out and identifying operatives for a potential White House run.

Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., left.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Among the other potential Republican presidential contenders sampled in the new survey, former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — a vocal Trump critic — stood at 2% support, along with Mike Pompeo, who served as CIA director and later secretary of state during the Trump administration.

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Former two-term Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former two-term New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran for the White House in 2016, registered at 1% in the poll, followed by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu at less than one percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,465 registered Republicans as part of a larger sample of more than 4,000 adults nationwide.