Last Updated: September 03, 2023, 11:22 IST
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
Former President Donald Trump walks to speak with reporters before departure from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in Atlanta. (Image: AP Photo)
Donald Trump, the former US president leads the Republican presidential primary race with 59 percent support, according to a Wall Street Journal poll
Donald Trump holds a significant lead in the Republican presidential primary race for the upcoming election next year, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll released on Saturday. In the race to the White House, 59 percent of Republican primary voters support the 77-year-old former president, marking an 11-point increase since the outlet conducted a similar survey in April this year.
Trump has embraced his indictments in four separate criminal cases which have boosted his popularity among voters and helped to make him far and away the front-runner in his GOP race. He has called the indictments part of a witch hunt to thwart his pursuit of a second term.
According to the WSJ poll, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was second on the list of most popular candidates among Republican voters with 13 percent support. Since the April poll, the outlet noted that Trump’s lead over DeSantis has nearly doubled to 46 percentage points.
The survey also showed lackluster results for other 2024 Republican presidential contenders challenging the former president for the GOP nomination.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley received 8 percent support, Indian American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy earned 5 percent support, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received 3 percent support, and former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina GOP Senator Tim Scott both received 2 percent support. While Haley, Ramaswamy, and Christie saw slight increases in support since the Journal’s April poll, these gains were modest.
In a hypothetical rematch between Trump and US President Joe Biden, the poll found both candidates evenly split at 46 percent support each, with 8 percent of respondents remaining undecided. When third-party candidates were introduced, Trump led Biden 40 percent to 39 percent.
According to Fox News, respondents were also questioned about the indictments against Trump, with over 60 percent of Republican primary voters asserting that these multiple criminal charges were politically motivated and lacked merit.
As many as 78 percent believed that Trump’s actions following the 2020 election were legitimate measures taken to ensure an accurate vote, while only 16 percent thought that Trump had illegally attempted to obstruct Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
Meanwhile, 48 percent of survey participants said that the indictments actually motivated them to support Trump even more in the 2024 election, while 16 percent indicated that this legal action made them less likely to support him.
The WSJ conducted this poll from August 24 to 30, collecting responses from 1,500 registered voters and 600 primary voters via telephone and web surveys.
www.news18.com
Source link