Nearly 80 percent of Republicans want to see Trump run in 2024: poll

Nearly 80 percent of Republicans want to see former President Trump wage a third White House bid in 2024, according to a new Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday. 

Seventy-eight percent of Republicans polled said they think Trump should run again, while 16 percent said he should sit out the 2024 race. Meanwhile, 94 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents said Trump should not run.

The poll underscores the stubborn support Trump enjoys among the GOP base, backing that may be growing. Sixty-six percent of Republicans said in the same poll in May that Trump should run for the White House in three years.

“While a majority of Americans say, ‘been there, done that’ about Trump, and half feel he has damaged the underpinnings of democracy, support for the former president within the GOP has grown,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.

The survey comes as Trump presents increasingly strong signals that he plans to launch a 2024 campaign.

The former president has begun traveling at a more frequent clip, including to swing states such as Iowa, and has doled out a slew of endorsements, including in key House and Senate races. He also continues to fundraise, raking in millions from his extensive small-dollar donor network. 

Republicans have debated the role of the former president in the GOP following the Jan. 6 insurrection, which was in support of his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. However, he appears to have bounced back, with more GOP figures, including in Washington, coalescing around him. 

Still, his role in inciting the insurrection could impact him in a general election campaign, with 51 percent of Americans saying he has been undermining democracy since the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s sway is looming large over would-be GOP presidential contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, who are expected to wait for an official announcement one way or another on the former president’s 2024 aspirations before declaring their own intentions.

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,342 adults and 1,168 registered voters from Oct. 15 to Oct. 18, with margins of error of 2.7 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively.