Judicial manhunt against Trump boosts his lead in the primary polls

Morning Consult's weekly Republican primary poll continues to project former President Donald Trump with a distant lead over his opponents. A week before the televised debate between the Republican candidates, Trump leads the poll with an estimated 57% of the vote. He is 41 points ahead of the second-leading candidate, Ron DeSantis.

The court cases opened on several fronts against the former president have not seemed to affect the Republican voter base. Since Morning Consult began tracking Republican candidates in December 2022, Trump got his best percentage of the vote on Aug. 8, at 61%. His support in the primaries has seen consistent growth since the beginning of the race.

The opposite is true for Trump’s main rival in the race to be the Republican candidate for the White House. Forida Governor Ron DeSantis has seen a sharp decline in the polls, especially since April. At one point, DeSantis had garnered as much as 34% of Republican support in the polls. Now, a week before the debate, he only achieved 16%, according to Morning Consult data.

A few days before the televised showdown between the eight qualified candidates, the gap is closing between entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis. Since July, Ramaswamy has managed to overtake Mike Pence. Nine percent of voters support Ramaswamy, while Pence is backed by 7% in Morning Consult polls.

They are followed by Nikki Haley with 3%, who at her peak achieved 6% in the month of March. Chris Christie and Tim Scott also come in with estimates of 3% leading up to the debate. This is the best result to date for Christie. Doug Bourgoum closes the list of candidates participating in the debate, with an estimated 1% of votes. Hutchinson and Suarez earned the same percentage of support.

Morning Consult also offers data on the second choice of Trump and DeSantis voters. In both cases, the leading second choice for voters is one of the top two candidates. The second choice of Trump voters is DeSantis, at 36%, and the second choice of DeSantis voters is Donald Trump, at 37%.

Vivek Ramaswamy is the next option for both Trump and DeSantis supporters, with 23% and 21%, respectively.