While former President Donald Trump maintains a commanding 40-point lead over his Republican primary challengers, Vivek Ramaswamy has surged over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to take second place, a new Echelon Insight poll found.
Trump is the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination, with 55 percent of likely primary voters supporting the former president. However, the longstanding second-place option, DeSantis, continued his descent in the poll, falling into third place.
Ramaswamy received 15 percent support, while DeSantis received just 12 percent in the RNC debate qualifying poll. Ramaswamy’s second-place stance aligns with a Kaplan Strategies poll released Monday that also found him above DeSantis.
Republican Main Street Partnership president and CEO Sarah Chamberlain said Ramaswamy “has risen well above expectations and is currently leading the pack of challengers.”
Chamberlain said:
While Donald Trump remains the frontrunner, Republican voters seeking an alternative candidate are beginning to coalesce around a few top-tier choices. For much of the past year that was Gov. DeSantis, but Vivek Ramaswamy has risen well above expectations and is currently leading the pack of challengers. Voters are clearly hungry for something new – no group more than the suburban women who often decide elections. If Mr. Ramaswamy, Gov. DeSantis, or any of the other hopefuls want a serious chance at winning the nomination, appealing to those voters should be top priority.
After DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence received four percent, while Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R) garnered three percent support. Chris Christie is the only other candidate who received at least one percent support.
The Republican Main Street Partnership, in conjunction with Echelon Insights, surveyed 1,017 likely Republican primary voters nationwide from August 15 to August 17. The survey has a ±3.9 percent margin of error.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at
