Trump Gets Great News from Early GOP Primary State Day After DeSantis Jumps in Race

The first state to vote in the 2024 Republican presidential primary has a clear and indisputable front-runner. Former President Donald Trump leads in a Thursday poll of Iowa Republicans from Emerson College — and it’s not close. Trump has support from a titanic 62 percent of Republicans in Iowa, who vote in a caucus. His closest competitor — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — has 20 percent support, less than a third of Trump’s. The polling suggests DeSantis has a long way to go in making the primary a competitive race. The governor is widely considered the only Republican with a serious chance of dethroning Trump in a presidential primary.

DeSantis, despite last night, is the most serious rival to Trump for the GOP nomination.

But let’s not gloss over that he is a LONG way behind. New poll out of Iowa this morning from the reputable @EmersonPolling: Trump 62, DeSantis 20 pic.twitter.com/PSYrpkvLjb — Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) May 25, 2023

However, the poll conducted the query of Iowa Republicans between May 19 and 22 — a time frame before DeSantis’ Wednesday announcement of a formal presidential campaign. A handful of alternate Republicans combine for less than 20 percent of support in the survey. Trump also has a handy lead over President Joe Biden in a tentative general election match-up. Trump leads his own successor 49 percent to 38 percent in the poll. DeSantis leads Biden in another match-up by 45 percent to 38 percent. Trump won Iowa in 2020, cementing the state’s status as Republican-aligned. Mitt Romney was the last Republican to lose Iowa in the 2012 presidential election.

Latest Iowa Caucus poll results: pic.twitter.com/D2RcAoaxrR

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) May 25, 2023

The other side of the partisan spectrum also shapes up as a lopsided affair in the poll. Biden has a rock-solid support of 69 percent of Democrats in the poll. His closest competitor, Robert Kennedy Jr, lags well behind at a paltry 11 percent. In a realignment of the traditional primary and caucus schedule, Democrats stripped the Iowa caucus of its first-in-the-nation status earlier this year, according to ABC News. Iowa Republicans will still kick off the schedule for the GOP. A total of 1,064 registered voters were surveyed in the poll, and its margin of error is 2.9 percent. This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.