Caucus 2024: Trump still dominant in polls; DeSantis and Haley see small gains – KCRG
DES MOINES, Iowa – The poll numbers continue to look the same. Donald Trump is in the lead, everyone else trails. The most recent Iowa State University poll shows Donald Trump is still the clear favorite among Iowa Republicans. He’s the number one choice among 55 percent of the people polled.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gained three points from ISU’s last poll where he now is in second place with 17 percent. Former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is at 11 percent. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy saw his numbers fall from 9 percent to five. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott is at four percent.
Iowa State University Political Science professor Dave Peterson says, “It’s now looking more like there isn’t a sort of coalesced alternative to Donald Trump, that Donald Trump is the leader and there isn’t much of a sign that anyone is gonna be close to challenging him anytime soon.”
Peterson says part of the reason Trump is maintaining his lead is because of his widespread name recognition and voters know what he stands for.
“People know who he is, and they’ve got really strong opinions on him and that’s part of what I think is making everything so stuck is that, you know, what are we going to learn about Donald Trump that we don’t already know?,” Peterson said.
Peterson says this race is Trump’s to lose unless something major happens. The current situation in Israel could move the needle a few points.
“It changes the nature and the attention to foreign policy a little bit more which Haley’s probably stronger at. And folks who care about foreign policy, you know, if they care more about foreign policy, they might like Nikki Haley a little more,” Peterson said.
The Iowa State poll doesn’t only look at which candidates caucusgoers would support, it also asks who they dislike the most.
“We asked this last month as well and again it’s pretty stable. Iowa Republicans hate Chris Christie. That’s not too surprising. He’s both attacking Donald Trump pretty consistently and he’s not in the state,” Peterson said.
The second most disliked candidate among those polled is Vice President Mike Pence. Right now, Pence is polling at one percent in the ISU survey. Peterson says voters who don’t like Trump also dislike his Vice President and are looking for an alternative.
This is the second in a series of five monthly Iowa State University polls to see if there are any shifts in voter attitudes before the Iowa Caucuses. The next poll is set to come out in mid-November.
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