Former President Donald Trump is starting to leave his GOP challengers in the dust, taking his biggest lead yet over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as he prepares to enter the primary race next month.
Trump’s surge to 62% even surprised the pollster, Emerson College Polling, which has had Trump consistently at 55% in past polls. Trump’s lead is nearly four times DeSantis’s 16%.
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“Trump’s 62% reflects an increase in support for the first time in an Emerson national poll since June 2022, where he has held a consistent 55%. Since the February national poll, DeSantis has lost nine points of support, from 25% to 16%,” the analysis said.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s approval rating took an unexpected stumble in the April Emerson survey. Just 41% approve of Biden, who announced his plans to run for reelection this week.
NATIONAL POLL
2024 #GOP Primary
Trump 62%
DeSantis 16%
Pence 7%
Haley 3%
Ramaswamy 3%
Christie 2%
Hutchinson 2%
Someone else 4%https://t.co/9pEWuFqq5f pic.twitter.com/TAe48Mw58I— Emerson College Polling (@EmersonPolling) April 27, 2023
“Driving Biden’s lower approval this month is independent voters, 37% of whom approved of the president in February, which has dropped to 30% this month,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in releasing the survey.
And he added in his analysis, “As the president announced his reelection bid Tuesday, a majority of Democratic voters (65%) think Biden should be the 2024 Democratic nominee, while 35% think it should be someone else. The share of Democratic voters who think Biden should be the nominee has decreased six points since February, from 71% to 65%.”
Still, in a head-to-head matchup of Trump and Biden, it’s a jump ball, the latest evidence that voters aren’t jazzed about the choice of two elderly politicians fighting it out in November 2024.
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Kimball said Biden edges out Trump 43%-41%. Several other polls show a similar tight race, which also reflects the political division in the country.
One possible reason: With the Biden and Trump bases unmovable, the race could be up to independent voters, and they appear evenly split. “Independent voters are nearly split on the presidential ticket between Trump and Biden, 34% would vote for Biden and 33% Trump,” Kimball said. “A third of independents support someone else or are undecided,” he added.
Other news from the survey is the lack of any other GOP candidate to show life, with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence still stuck in single digits despite high-profile media appearances.
