A new Morning Consult poll shows former President Donald Trump expanding his lead in the 2024 GOP primary over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to 43 percentage points.
The poll, updated Tuesday, shows Trump leading the Republican field with 61% among GOP primary voters, followed by the yet-to-declare DeSantis with 18%, and former Vice President Mike Pence with 6%.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy are polling at 4%, followed by the rest of the field of potential candidates between 0% to 2%, according to the data.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is the only other candidate in the field who has officially announced a candidacy.
The survey, conducted among 3,571 potential Republican primary voters May 12-14, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Morning Consult noted that this is Trump's largest lead on the field since it began tracking the primary race in December, with 3 out of every 5 Republican voters backing his bid.
Democrat President Joe Biden, however, is maintaining a slight 3-percentage point advantage on Trump in the general election, according to the polling.
As Trump increases his lead, favorability is declining for his closest rival, DeSantis, who dropped 6 points in the past week despite visiting Iowa over the weekend.
Ramaswamy is gaining ground with a 29-point increase in the past month as more voters become aware of him, according to the organization.
Political polling site FiveThirtyEight has Trump up an average of 31 percentage points (52.5% to 21.9%) over DeSantis in an aggregation of nine different polls.
Despite not formally announcing his candidacy, DeSantis dined with "dozens of wealthy fundraisers" in Florida earlier this month, according to the Washington Post.
The report from May 6 said the popular governor is considering the launch of a "presidential exploratory committee" soon, which is usually a first step for a presidential bid.
"[DeSantis has] a lot of money in the bank and a good story to tell," Terry Sullivan, former campaign manager for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told the Post. "He's still got the best shot to beat Donald Trump out of anybody in the field."
While DeSantis attended events in Sioux Center, Iowa, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, over the weekend, severe thunderstorms forecast for Des Moines caused Trump to cancel his outdoor rally on Saturday, the Des Moines Register reported.
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