Former President Donald Trump has nearly doubled his lead over Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis with Republican voters in recent months, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.
Trump has mostly enjoyed a double-digit lead on DeSantis and the rest of the GOP pack in recent months. Even after dropping to his lowest level of support in a recent Emerson College poll, which has been tracking the 2024 election since last summer, the former president was still backed by 50 percent of Republican voters, holding a 38-point lead over the Florida governor.
Meanwhile, Trump was indicted and arrested, and then released on a $200,000 bond in August over allegations he broke the law attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia. The former president has strongly denied any wrongdoing in the case, claiming the allegations against him are a "witch hunt" and "election interference."
He has also pleaded not guilty to a series of charges in other indictments related to claims he orchestrated the payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House and illegally tried to block Joe Biden's 2020 election victory on a nationwide basis that lead to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. No previous U.S. president has ever been charged with a criminal offense.
According to the Wall Street Journal poll released on Saturday, Trump is the first choice for 59 percent of GOP voters, while DeSantis gathered 13 percent, dropping from 24 percent when voters were surveyed in April.
When asked about Trump's indictments, more than 60 percent of GOP voters said each indictment was politically motivated and without merit. Some 78 percent said Trump's actions after the 2020 election were legitimate efforts to ensure an accurate vote, while 16 percent said the former president had illegally tried to block Congress from certifying an election he had lost. The poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, surveyed 600 Republican primary voters and was conducted between August 24 to 30.
Political analyst Craig Agranoff told Newsweek on Saturday that even though Trump may have a commanding lead over DeSantis "it is still early in the race and anything can happen."
"DeSantis is a popular and rising star in the Republican Party, and he has a strong base of support. If he can continue to build momentum, he could still have a chance to win the nomination although as we get closer it will seem unlikely with Trump still in the race," Agranoff said.
In response of the new poll, Taylor Budowich, the founder of MAGA Inc., took to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday and wrote, "Something that most casual observers will miss is that the time period between these two WSJ polls was chock-full of promised DeSantis turnaround moments..."
He continued: "End of his big legislative session, his announcement, DeSantis hitting the campaign trail, Casey hitting the campaign trail, campaign reset #1, reset #2, reset #3, the debate, and a hurricane his campaign tried to 'spin' for political gain. Instead of a turnaround, the results are a complete collapse and failure..."
Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, also reacted to the poll on X and wrote, "Winning."
Newsweek has reached out to DeSanits's campaign via email for comment.
