GOP support for Trump slips in new poll

Republican primary voters’ support for former President Trump slipped slightly in a new Morning Consult poll released Tuesday.

Fifty-three percent of potential GOP primary voters said they would support the former president, down from a high of 57 percent earlier this month in the wake of his arraignment in Manhattan.

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his role in a $130,000 hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

However, the former president remains well ahead of the rest of the pack of announced and potential GOP candidates. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is widely expected to launch a 2024 bid, comes the closest to Trump, with 24 percent support among GOP primary voters, the poll found. The recent shifts in the former president’s support are largely mirrored by that of the Florida governor, who had a slight dip in support amid the news of the charges against Trump.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is mulling a White House run, sits far behind in third, with 7 percent support in Tuesday’s poll. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) and conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom already announced their campaigns, garnered 4 percent and 3 percent of support, respectively.

In hypothetical matchups against President Biden, DeSantis performs slightly better than Trump. Biden, who has repeatedly indicated he plans to run for reelection, leads the Florida governor by 1 point and the former president by 3 points, the poll found.

The Morning Consult poll was conducted April 14-16 with 3,499 potential Republican primary voters and had a margin of error of 1 to 2 percentage points.

The hypothetical general election matchups were based on polling of more than 5,000 registered voters and had a margin of error of 1 percentage point.