Former President Donald Trump earned the highest level of support among likely caucusgoers in a recent Iowa poll, NBC News reported.
Trump is currently the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination with over 60% support among primary voters nationwide, according to a RealClearPolitics average of all major polls. Trump has 51% support among registered voters in Iowa as their first preference, according to a new poll by Seltzer & Company commissioned by NBC News, The Des Moines Register and Mediacom. (RELATED: One GOP Candidate Wallops Biden In The Latest Poll By Double Digits. It’s Not Trump)
“With all the other candidates, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what they say, it doesn’t matter what they do. Because automatically, my vote is going to Trump no matter what,” Timothy Blackerby, a 67-year-old resident of Iowa and respondent of the poll, told NBC News. “They can promise me a million dollars. I tell them to keep it. And I would still vote for Trump,” Blackerby said.
Trump’s lead is the largest the poll has recorded this close to a competitive caucus, NBC reported.
Ron DeSantis on a big difference between him and Trump:
“I’m not running about my issues. I’m running about your issues. I’m running about your family. That’s going to be the focus for me.” pic.twitter.com/Zy2wNUAPcd
— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) December 11, 2023
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida earned 19% support as respondents’ first preference and 30% support as their second preference, the highest among the latter category. Former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has 16% support, with all other candidates polling in single digits.
Support for Trump as respondents’ first preference increased since October, the last iteration of the poll, when it was 43%, according to NBC News.
The poll also surveyed the persuadability of Iowa caucusgoers, who will hold their caucuses on Jan. 15. Among them, 49% said they had made up their minds regarding their choice of candidate, a figure that rose to 70% for voters who supported Trump. That figure was lopsided for DeSantis and Haley’s supporters, with 70% and 65%, respectively, indicating they could be persuaded to caucus for somebody else.
Seventy-three percent of voters reported they thought that Trump could win a general election against President Joe Biden, the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, even amid his multiple indictments, an increase from the poll’s last iteration. Trump also earned the highest favorability rating among respondents at 72%, which was second only to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, who has endorsed DeSantis.
“There is a growing consensus that Nikki Haley is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Nikki trounces Biden in the general election by a whopping 17 points while Trump barely squeaks by and Ron DeSantis doesn’t beat Biden,” Ken Farnaso, the press secretary for Haley’s campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The poll was conducted between Dec. 2 and 7, 2023 and surveyed 502 likely Republican caucusgoers in Iowa, with an error margin of ±4.4 percentage points.
Trump and DeSantis’ campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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