Former President Donald Trump has a big lead in the race to secure the GOP nomination ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Here's a look at the latest.
What Happened: It was a race that started with over 10 candidates. Now, the GOP nomination is down to Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Trump has won the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, taking an early lead in the head-to-head race.
The former president won the state of Iowa with 51% of the vote, earning 20 delegates in the Republican primary race. Ron DeSantis ranked second with 21.2% of the vote, earning nine delegates. Haley ranked third with 19.1% of the vote and eight delegates.
DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race after Iowa and ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
The New Hampshire primary saw Trump get 54.4% of the vote and earn 12 delegates and Haley get 43.2% of the vote and secure nine delegates, according to CNN.
The latest Morning Consult poll of GOP voters is the first to feature only Trump and Haley as the candidates.
Here's a look at who Republican voters selected in the Morning Consult poll, with the percentage from last week in parentheses.
Donald Trump: 81% (75%)
Nikki Haley: 18% (12%)
Related Link: Can A Biden-Haley Ticket Beat Trump? An Unorthodox Option For President As He Falls In 2024 Election Polls
Why It's Important: Trump's lead remains at 63 points, holding steady from a record set last week. Trump's 81% of the vote marks a new full-week high since polling began in December 2022.
Trump has been dominant in the poll of national Republican voters in recent weeks and the results in Iowa and New Hampshire shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Trump posted a lead of 50 points or more in multiple consecutive weeks in the national poll of Republican voters.
The bad news for Trump is he didn't gain as much support from previous backers of DeSantis as one could expect.
Last week's poll saw DeSantis with 12% support. Of the voters who selected DeSantis as their top candidate, 57% selected Trump as their next pick, while 35% selected Haley as their second choice. This implied that Trump could add six points to his tally with Haley adding four points.
Instead, Trump and Haley split DeSantis's supporters and Trump's lead failed to increase despite DeSantis dropping out.
The new poll found Trump had a favorable rating of 74% and unfavorable rating of 25%. Both of these figures got worse from last week's totals of 81% and 18%, respectively. The change in Trump's favorable rating came after a large court ruling against him for damages owed to author E. Jean Carroll.
Haley had a favorable rating of 45% and an unfavorable rating of 36%, compared to marks of 47% and 32% respectively in the previous poll.
After her second-place finish in New Hampshire, Haley vowed to stay in the Republican presidential race. February will see several more primaries, including Haley’s home state of South Carolina on Feb. 24, which could be a key state in her campaign to win the GOP nomination.
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