Trump support ticks up in GOP primary poll

Support for former President Trump has ticked up in a new GOP primary poll, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s support has dipped. 

The new Quinnipiac University poll found that support for the former president stood at 62 percent among Republican-aligned voters, up from the 57 percent he garnered in August. DeSantis received 12 percent, continuing a decline in support after he last month recorded his then-lowest level in Quinnipiac’s primary polls from this year at 18 percent.

In February, DeSantis trailed Trump by just 6 points in the university’s poll. Now he is trailing by 40.

Despite the dip in support for the Florida governor, however, he remained in second place among the Republican field. Support for other GOP presidential hopefuls remained about the same as in the previous month’s poll. Conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy received the third-highest percentage at 6 percent, up slightly from the 5 percent he got in August.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence each received 5 percent support in the new poll, up from 3 percent and 4 percent last month, respectively. Three percent of Republican-aligned voters said they would support Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), and 2 percent said they would support former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 

No other candidate listed received more than 2 percent support, Quinnipiac noted.

The poll also found that half of Republican-aligned voters said they are “firmly set” on who they are voting for in the 2024 GOP primary, while 48 percent said they may still change their mind. Sixty-eight percent of those who said they would support Trump said they are set on voting for him no matter what happens, and 29 percent said they may switch their support.

The survey was conducted Sept. 7-11 among 728 Republican and Republican-leaning voters with a sampling error of 3.6 percentage points.