Trump Way Ahead in California GOP Primary Poll

Almost three times as many California Republicans say they will most likely vote for former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary than his next closest competitor, according to an Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey released on Tuesday.

In the poll, which was carried out before news of Trump’s federal indictment, 53% of respondents said they would most likely vote for the former president, followed by 19% for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 10% for former Vice President Mike Pence.

Among the other candidates in the Republican primary, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was next at 6%, with no one else reaching the 5% mark.

The polling is consistent with other surveys conducted across the nation, which show that Trump is the clear front-runner of the Republican presidential primary race and far ahead of his chief rival, DeSantis, The Hill reported.

Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball said that "Trump’s base continues to be voters under 50 and those without a college degree, while DeSantis performs strongest, but still trails Trump, among voters over 50 and those with a college degree."

Kimball added that "Trump leads DeSantis 60% to 14% among those under 50 compared to 49% to 21% among those over 50. Among voters without a college degree, Trump leads DeSantis 62% to 15%, compared to those with a college degree where he leads 46% to 25%"

In a hypothetical matchup between President Joe Biden and Trump, Biden has a 22-point lead over Trump, 54% to 32%, according to the poll. 10% would vote for someone else and 5% are undecided. Against DeSantis, Biden leads by 26 points, 54% to 28%. 10% percent are undecided and 8% would vote for someone else.

The survey was carried out June 4-7, with 1,056 California voters surveyed. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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