The latest NBC News poll on the 2024 Republican presidential primary race shows that former President Donald Trump continues to hold a significant lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with a whopping 51-22 percent margin.
The poll, which was conducted by Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies and commissioned by NBC News, surveyed 1000 registered voters June 16-20 and had a margin of error of ±3.10%, shows President Trump holding a consistent lead over DeSantis over the past 12 months.
The timing of the poll is very telling considering that it was conducted just about a month after DeSantis launched his presidential campaign.
With Gov. DeSantis launching his highly-anticipated presidential with much fanfare and with millions of dollars being infused into his Never Back Down Super PAC, and millions more having been spent to build up “America’s Governor” conservative and electability bona fides, not to mention the federal indictment against President Trump, the NBC poll could be seen a proverbial political doomsday sign for his campaign.
Since he announced on May 24, all of the public opinion polls show Trump beating DeSantis by no less than 21 percentage points, and no more than 45 percentage points.
This is not good news for Team DeSantis, but it is still very early in the 2024 GOP presidential primary contest, so DeSantis cannot be written off anytime soon.
DeSantis activists, supporters, and those social media “influencers” have been quick to dismiss the consistent poll numbers that show Trump leading DeSantis, and are instead pointing to the internal numbers where some polls show that Trump losing to President Joe Biden in the general election.
In the NBC poll, Biden defeats Trump by 49-45 points but ties with DeSantis 47-47.
But one undeniable data point in the poll shows that both Trump and DeSantis have a very similar “Total Positive” and “Total Negative” view among Republican voters.
Trump polls slighter higher than DeSantis in both Positive and Negative categories.
This is very, very telling considering that the former president is currently facing two indictments, and possibly more.
Again, we are at the very beginning of the 2024 presidential primary race and just as DeSantis’s polling shows a downward trajectory, and Trump shows a slight climb, American politics have proven to be very fluid and susceptible to many primary season political surprises.
Trump is campaigning on the polls, while DeSantis is campaigning on raising his name recognition among voters in early voting states.
In other words, anything can happen over the next 6-9 months.
