Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie didn’t register in a new national poll of possible 2024 presidential candidates conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in his home state.
The poll shows former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tied at 39% each as the first choice among Republicans for their nomination.
The rest of the pack has just about nothing: former Vice President Mike Pence is at 2%, with 1% each for Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Pompeo. Christie, who is mulling a second White House bid, was not included in the Monmouth poll.
“Trump and DeSantis are grabbing most of the media attention, so it is not surprising that most Republican voters do not come up with any names other than these two,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “If DeSantis chooses to run against Trump, it will be very difficult for any other candidate to get Republican voters to take a close look at them.”
In a two-way race, DeSantis leads Trump by 13 percentage points, 53%-40%.
“Both Trump and DeSantis are well-liked by the party’s rank and file, but it’s likely that voter opinion of Trump is more firmly set than it is for DeSantis right now,” Murray explained. “The unknown factor is whether DeSantis can maintain this early edge if and when he gets on the campaign trail.”
Just 27% of Republicans think Trump should run as an independent.
But Trump would beat Cruz, 60%-31%, and DeSantis crush the U.S. Senator from Texas, 67%-19%.
Almost three-quarters of Republicans (74%) view Trump favorably, with 18% having an unfavorable opinion. DeSantis is at 80%-6%, Pence at 55%-28%, Pompeo at 41%-16%, Cruz at 73%-13%, and Haley at 47%-11%.
The Monmouth University Poll was conducted from January 26 to February 2 with 566 Republican and Republican-leaning voters in the United States and has a margin of error of +/- 6.1%.
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February 10, 2020 -
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