Four criminal indictments and a viral mugshot later, former president and current GOP frontrunner for the seat in 2024 Donald Trump has only risen in the polls, garnering support as more Americans come to view the prosecutions as partisan and political.
A Wall Street Journal poll conducted Aug. 24 to Aug. 30 and published Sept. 2 found that 59 percent of GOP primary voters say he is their top choice.
“The new survey finds that what was once a two-man race for the nomination has collapsed into a lopsided contest,” with President Trump widely taking the lead, the publication found.
WSJ had run a similar poll in April, and found that President Trump has almost doubled his lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis since then, rising 11 points and bringing the difference between the two to 46 points.
“At 13% support, DeSantis is barely ahead of the rest of the field, none of whom has broken out of single-digit support,” WSJ wrote.
The Florida governor’s approval dropped the most, going from 35 percent to 13 percent of likely primary voters declaring him their first choice between the April and recent poll.
Support for all other candidates had also taken a dip, with likely voters switching their top pick to President Trump. Entrepreneur and political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy saw 16 percent of the vote in April, and now has only 5 percent. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s numbers dropped from 12 to 8 percent. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) saw his support drop from 7 to 2 percent, and former Vice President Mike Pence from 4 to 2 percent, while the others saw no change at 1 to 3 percent. A smaller group of voters were undecided this time, from 12 to 4 percent in the most recent poll.
Indictment Effect
WSJ also asked voters about the multiple indictments against President Trump, and found that most Republican voters viewed it in his favor: 78 percent said the president’s actions after 2020 were “legitimate efforts to ensure an accurate vote,” while 16 percent said the attempt to block Congress was illegal. Also, 16 percent said they were less likely to vote for President Trump because of the indictments, while 48 percent said they were more likely to vote for him because of the indictments.
By Catherine Yang
