Poll: Majority of GOP Voters Support Donald Trump in Primary as Ramaswamy Places Third

A majority of potential Republican primary voters support former President Donald Trump, and anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is maintaining his place in third, this week’s Morning Consult survey found.

This week’s survey, released Tuesday, found Trump maintaining his status as the dominant frontrunner with majority — 55 percent — support. That reflects a one-point dip from the 56 percent support he saw last week.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came 35 points behind with 20 percent support, although that reflects a three-point uptick from the 17 percent he garnered last week.

Ramaswamy, who emerged to third place last week, is maintaining that position with eight percent support in the crowded field. One month ago, Ramaswamy tied for fourth place with three other presidential hopefuls at three percent support.

Like last week, former Vice President Mike Pence remained in fourth place with seven percent support, followed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (four percent support), South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (three percent), and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (two percent). All remaining candidates — former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, and former Rep. Will Hurd — saw zero percent support.

That portion of the survey was taken July 14-16, 2023, among 3.630 potential Republican primary voters and has a +/- 2 percent margin of error.

The survey observed that “lower-tier candidates are struggling to break through.”

Morning Consult reported:

Besides Trump and DeSantis, GOP presidential candidates are having a tough time getting the attention of the party’s expected electorate. More than half of potential GOP primary voters haven’t heard anything recently about Ramaswamy (54%), former Vice President Mike Pence (57%), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (59%), South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (65%) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (65%).

Additionally, a plurality of Trump voters, 40 percent, still choose DeSantis as their second choice candidate, although Ramaswamy comes in second with 17 percent choosing him.

Similarly, 41 percent of DeSantis supporters choose Trump as their second choice candidate, followed by 14 percent who said Ramaswamy.

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The Morning Consult survey follows an Echelon Insights survey which also found Ramaswamy in third place but with ten percent support.