More than 60 percent of Trump primary voters said there is “at least some chance” they would support a candidate other than former President Trump in the Republican presidential primary, according to a survey from Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll shared Monday with The Hill.
The findings come roughly two months before the first Republican presidential primary contests in Iowa. While the poll found that Trump voters were somewhat open to another candidate, it also found that the former president remained dominant in the field.
“Trump has wide support but its depth remains subject to challenge. Dissatisfaction with Biden rather than new support for Trump seems to be driving his numbers,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
According to the latest findings, Trump comes out on top in head-to-head match-ups with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. If the primary were held today, 75 percent said they would vote for Trump, while 29 percent said the same about DeSantis. In a head-to-head match-up against Haley, 81 percent said they would vote for Trump and 19 percent said they would vote for Haley.
The poll also found that Trump’s legal issues do not appear to be negatively impacting his stance with GOP primary voters either; 89 percent said they would still vote for him if he was convicted of any crimes, while 11 percent said they would not vote for him.
The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll was conducted Nov. 15-16 with 2,851 respondents surveyed. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.
Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.