Former President Donald Trump posted a big lead over the other Republican presidential candidates ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Here's a look at the latest.
What Happened: Trump dominated political headlines for months with federal charges in multiple cases and multiple states seeking to remove the former president from the 2024 election ballot.
Despite multiple courtroom appearances and a calendar full of court dates alongside his 2024 presidential campaign, Republican voters appeared to be unphased by Trump's legal challenges.
The former president continued to be backed by a majority of Republican voters in a national poll ahead of the 2024 election. With primary season ready to begin, Trump is the huge favorite to win the Republican party nomination for the 2024 election.
The latest Morning Consult poll of GOP voters showed Trump with a comfortable 55-point lead over his Republican opponents for a second straight week.
Here's a look at who Republican voters would vote for today, with the percentage from last week in parentheses.
Donald Trump: 66% (66%)
Ron DeSantis: 11% (11%)
Nikki Haley: 11% (11%)
Vivek Ramaswamy: 6% (6%)
Chris Christie: 4% (3%)
Trump tied his record 55-point lead in the newest poll, which took place over the New Year's Day weekend. Trump's lead continued to be above 50 points in recent weeks.
Why It's Important: Trump's 66% support among Republican voters ties with his level from last week's poll and is down from a record 69% hit in late December mid-week polling ahead of the holidays.
Haley remained tied with DeSantis for second place, a place she hit several weeks ago for the first time. Haley has been surging up the polls in recent weeks, with many citing her strong backing from donors and performance at the Republican primary debates as reasons to be excited about her campaign.
Haley's performance at debates could be good news and could see a tie with DeSantis broken soon, depending on the public's perception of a fifth Republican primary debate set for Jan. 10, with only Trump, DeSantis and Haley qualifying, leaving out Christie and Ramaswamy.
The debate, which will air on Warner Bros. Discovery WBD-owned CNN, will feature only Haley and DeSantis with Trump sitting out the debate once again. Instead, Trump will be featured in a town hall event that airs on Fox Corporation FOXFOXA-owned Fox News at the same time.
The latest poll found that of those who support Trump, 40% would pick DeSantis next, 24% would select Ramaswamy next and only 12% would then select Haley.
Of those who don't support Trump as their top candidate, 31% would select him as their second choice.
Trump scored high in the latest poll with a 79% favorable rating and 19% unfavorable rating. Morning Consult noted Trump's net favorability rating has gained seven points in the last month.
DeSantis had a favorable rating of 62% and an unfavorable rating of 23%. Ramaswamy had a favorable rating of 52% and an unfavorable rating of 23%.
Haley has a favorable rating of 46% and an unfavorable rating of 20%, giving her the lowest net favorability rating of the four top candidates. Morning Consult shared that Haley's net favorability rating has declined 11 points in the last month.
The drop in Haley's net favorability rating comes after she was recently criticized for not naming slavery as one of the items that helped cause the American Civil War.
January will be a busy month for the Republican candidates with a fifth primary debate and key elections taking place in the states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Photo: Shutterstock
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