Trump’s lead over 2024 GOP field grows, poll finds

Trump leads with almost every Republican group while Ron DeSantis takes a slight dip

A majority of Republican primary voters support former president Donald Trump, according to a new poll from Fox News published Wednesday evening.

Support for Mr Trump jumped from 43 per cent among Republican primary voters in February to 54 per cent of Republican primary voters in March. The polling boost comes after Mr Trump has kicked off his presidential campaign in earnest, campaigning in Iowa and holding a rally in Waco, Texas.

“The rumor that Trump is going to be indicted by the district attorney in Manhattan has helped him quite a bit among Republican primary voters,” Republican pollster Daron Shaw told Fox News.

Mr Trump said earlier this month, without evidence, that Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg planned to indict him for charges related to him allegedly paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels hush money to keep an affair quiet, which Mr Trump vehemently denies.

Conversely, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s numbers took a slight drip from 28 per cent in February to 24 per cent in March. Mr DeSantis has yet to announce his presidential campaign, which he is expected to do some time during the summer once Florida’s legislative session ends.

Mr DeSantis also faced negative headlines after he told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the war in Ukraine amounted to a “territorial dispute.”

Mr Trump leads among most major Republican groups, as 64 per cent of Republican voters who earn less than $50,000 a year supporting him, 47 per cent with Republicans who earn more than that, 53 per cent with Republican men and 57 per cent with Republican women.

Mr DeSantis does slightly better with Republican men than he does with Republican women, with 31 per cent of Republican men supporting him and 19 per cent of Republican women.

The former president and Mr DeSantis are tied with white Republicans who have a college degree, earning 38 per cent each; but Mr Trump earns 61 per cent of white Republicans without a college degree.

The poll interviewed 1,0007 registered voters between 24 March and 27 March by Democratic polling firm Beacon Research and Republican firm Shaw & Company Research.