An NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey released Monday shows that Donald Trump is continuing to gain support in Iowa, while Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are vying for second place. The Iowa caucuses are in five weeks.
Nearly half of all Republican caucusgoers in the state now rank Trump higher than any other candidate, up from 43% in an October poll in Iowa. NBC News reports that, thus far in the election, Trump has the highest lead in this Iowa survey.
With a three-point increase from October, Florida Gov. DeSantis now has 19% of the vote, tying him with Haley for third place (16%). A little over a week ago, DeSantis finished touring 99 counties across the state. During the months of August through October, Haley’s support in Iowa surged by 10%, but she has maintained a constant 16% since then.
Finally, in fourth place, with 5% of the vote, is biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, is at 1% while Chris Christie, a former governor of New Jersey who has not campaigned in Iowa at all, is at 4%.
Nearly half of voters (49%) have already decided, while nearly half (46%) are open to changing their minds and supporting a different candidate.
Even though Trump is facing numerous legal hurdles, the poll shows that 73% of potential Republican caucusgoers feel he can defeat President Joe Biden. This is an increase from 66% in October.
It has been alleged that Trump mishandled sensitive documents, was involved in the Jan. 6 rebellion, attempted to reverse the 2020 election, and is now facing four criminal cases involving felony charges related to hush money payments to a porn star.
The poll was conducted from December 2-7 and includes 502 probable Republican caucusgoers. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
