Trump holds clear lead in GOP primary field after indictment: poll

Former President Trump maintains a strong lead in the crowded Republican presidential primary after he was indicted on federal charges in a classified documents case, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released exclusively to The Hill on Friday. 

Fifty-nine percent of Republican voters said that if the GOP primary were held today, they would vote for Trump, while 14 percent said the same about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Eight percent of GOP voters said they would vote for former Vice President Pence, and four percent said they would back former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. 

The poll was conducted just under a week after the former president announced he had been indicted on federal charges. 

“The indictment of former President Trump has had no impact on his support in the GOP primary as Ron DeSantis has even more ground to make up with the entry of so many new candidates,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey. 

Trump was arraigned in a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, but despite the circumstances was in full campaign mode. After his arraignment, Trump made a stop at a popular Cuban restaurant in Little Havana before he flew back to Bedminster, N.J., to address his supporters and meet with donors.

On Thursday, Trump’s campaign said he raised over $6 million since the indictment news. 

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey was conducted June 14-15 and surveyed 2,090 registered voters. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.

The survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval.