40 percent of likely Republican Iowa caucusgoers identify as MAGA: Survey

Forty percent of registered voters who said they are likely to attend the GOP Iowa caucuses identify themselves as members of former President Trump’s MAGA, or “Make America Great Again,“ base, according to a new poll.

The NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found that 18 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers identify themselves as “Ultra MAGA,” while an additional 22 percent identify as “Regular MAGA,” NBC News reported. Thirty-eight percent said they were neutral to the phrase, and 17 percent said they were “anti-MAGA.”

A voter’s first-choice candidate was also an indicator of how they viewed the MAGA movement, according to the poll. Sixty percent of likely caucusgoers who selected Trump as their first-choice candidate described themselves as either “Ultra MAGA” (31 percent) or as “Regular MAGA” (29 percent).

Likely caucusgoers backing former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley were less likely to identify as MAGA. Eleven percent of those who are supporting Haley as their first choice said they either identified as “Ultra MAGA” or “Regular MAGA,” 37 percent said they were neutral and 50 percent said they were “anti-MAGA.”

Supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were more split about whether they identified as MAGA. Twenty-four percent said they are either “Ultra MAGA” or “Regular MAGA,” 57 percent said they are neutral and 17 percent said they are “anti-MAGA.”

The poll, released Saturday, also found that Trump had a 28-point point over Haley, who is his closest challenger. Haley garnered 20 percent of support while DeSantis was in third place with 16 percent of the vote.

The poll was conducted Jan. 7-12 among 705 registered Iowa voters planning to attend Republican caucuses and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.