Trump Gains Support Ahead Of Second Republican Primary Debate He's Skipping: Here's How Big His Lead Is

Former President Donald Trump has dominated election polls for months as he works to secure the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

A leading national poll showed Trump boosting his lead over his Republican competition ahead of a second primary debate.

What Happened: Trump had an eventful 2023 with multiple indictments and federal charges, as well as a calendar filling up with court appearances ahead of the 2024 election.

Despite these developments, Trump’s backing from Republican voters continued to hold steady — and in some weeks grew. Trump remained the odds-on favorite to win the 2024 GOP nomination, barring any future setbacks or surges from rival opponents.

The latest Morning Consult poll of GOP voters showed Trump gained support and has one of his largest leads since tracking began in December 2022.

Here’s a look at who Republican voters would vote for today, with the percentage from last week in parentheses.

• Donald Trump: 59% (57%)
• Ron DeSantis: 13% (14%)
• Vivek Ramaswamy: 10% (9%)
• Nikki Haley: 6% (6%)
• Mike Pence: 5% (6%)
• Chris Christie: 2% (3%)
• Tim Scott: 2% (2%)

In the latest poll, Trump has a 46-point lead, one of his largest and up from last week’s 43-point lead. Over the past four weeks, Trump has had a lead of at least 43 points each week over his Republican competitors.

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Why It’s Important: Trump gained two percentage points from last week’s poll. DeSantis dropped a percentage point for a second straight week and continues to see his campaign and support fading away.

Haley maintained steady at 6% and continues to gain buzz after a strong showing the in first Republican primary debate. Haley had around 3% of the support before the first Republican debate.

Ramaswamy gained one percentage point and got back in the double-digit range for the first time in several weeks.

With Christie falling to 2% of the vote in the poll, there are now only five candidates listed with 3% or more in support, which is a key figure to watch. Candidates need to have 3% support among GOP voters in two national surveys ahead of the next Republican primary debate.

Among voters who selected Trump first, 33% chose DeSantis as their next selection, while Ramaswamy was selected by 24% and Pence by 11%. This marked a shift as last week’s poll saw 34% select DeSantis, 27% select Ramaswamy and 9% select Pence.

Of voters who supported DeSantis first, 38% selected Trump as their next selection and 15% selected Ramaswamy.

In the latest poll, Trump’s favorability jumps to 80%, up from last week’s 76% score he had for the last three weeks. Trump’s unfavorable ranking of 19% is among the lower marks he has had in recent weeks.

DeSantis gets a 67% favorable ranking and 21% unfavorable ranking.

Ramaswamy and Haley scored well in their favorable to unfavorable net ranking at 58/18 and 50/20, respectively.

After several weeks of Ramaswamy on the top of the list for hearing something positive about a candidate, it was Trump who got the highest level of positive comments at 39%. Trump also ranked among the highest for hearing something negative about a candidate at 42%.

Ramaswamy ranked close behind at 38% of respondents saying they heard something positive about him, and scored one of the lowest heard something negative about responses at 15%.

Haley continued to see strong rankings with 28% hearing something positive and only 14% hearing something unfavorable. Haley saw 58% report they heard nothing about her, giving her a total of 86% hearing something positive or nothing at all, giving her a high non-negative news score.

Benzinga will continue to monitor the polls ahead of the second Republican primary debate.

A second Republican primary debate will be held on Sept. 27 and air on Fox Corporation FOXFOXA unit Fox Business and will livestream on Rumble Inc RUM.

After sitting out the first debate, Trump is planning on skipping the second debate with a stop planned for Detroit to address UAW striking auto workers.

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