Donald Trump widened his lead among likely Republican primary voters as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose campaign has struggled to gain traction, fell further behind the former president in a new poll.
Trump registered healthy margins among every demographic group in a Siena College/New York Times poll released Monday, with 54% of likely GOP voters backing Trump, compared to 17% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Trump’s 37 percentage point lead over DeSantis, who has consistently placed a distant second, is the largest so far.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott each registered 3%.
Trump has led in every poll of Republican primary voters taken since mid-March tracked by Real Clear Politics, but his lead has grown from single digits, while DeSantis has dropped in recent polls amid a campaign reboot.
DeSantis is planning a major economic speech in New Hampshire Monday as part of his effort to turn around his falling poll numbers.
In the Siena poll, Trump led among both men and women; every age group; every income bracket; voters who live in rural areas, suburbs and the city; those who live in the Midwest, Northeast, South and West; those who went to college and those who didn’t; and liberal, moderate and conservative Republicans.
He was weakest among White college graduates, who backed him 37% over DeSantis at 25%; voters aged 30-44, who backed him 41% to DeSantis at 28%; and liberal/moderate Republicans, who backed him 35% to DeSantis at 17%.
The poll of 932 likely Republican primary voters was conducted July 23-27, finishing just as a superseding indictment was filed in a case involving Trump’s handling of classified documents. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.96 percentage points.
