44 percent of Republicans don’t want Trump to run for reelection: poll

A new poll found that 70 percent of Americans, including 44 percent of Republicans, do not want former President Trump to make a White House run in 2024.

The poll, released Thursday from The Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s research center NORC, also found that 93 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents do not want Trump to run.

Respondents with a college degree were more likely to say he should not run than those without, though majorities of both groups — at 80 percent and 65 percent, respectively — said so.

The results come as polling shows Trump has expanded his lead in a hypothetical GOP primary against potential rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). While DeSantis has not officially announced a presidential campaign, he is widely expected to enter the race.

A Wall Street Journal poll released this week found Trump had a 13-point lead over DeSantis. A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that he had a 35-point lead over the Florida governor. He holds a still greater lead over other current or potential GOP candidates, according to the polls.

Despite many Americans not wanting him to run, the AP-NORC poll found that Trump has the highest net favorability rating among potential GOP candidates included in the survey.

Thirty-four percent of respondents have a favorable view of Trump, including 4 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans. Former Vice President Mike Pence and DeSantis, meanwhile, fall slightly behind with 33 and 31 percent favorability among all respondents, according to the poll. 

The poll found that President Biden has the highest favorability of all the candidates included, with 45 percent of respondents having a favorable opinion of him. As with Trump, there is also a massive partisan divide in respondents’ view of Biden: 81 percent of Democrats and 12 percent of Republicans view the president favorably.

The AP-NORC poll additionally found that a majority of Americans believe Trump broke the law in his alleged efforts to interfere with the counting of votes in Georgia’s 2020 election. Fewer respondents, though still more than 40 percent, said the former president’s alleged actions currently at the heart of several other probes were illegal.

The poll was conducted from April 13 to 17 among 1,230 adults. The margin of error was 3.9 percentage points.