Former President Donald Trump was already receiving favorable polling results in comparison to his 2024 GOP primary opponents. However, his campaign received even more positive news just as Mike Pence was set to announce his withdrawal from the race.
“Trump is boasting a 49-point lead over his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, this week’s Morning Consult survey found,” Breitbart News reported on Saturday.
“Trump now has support from 62 percent of potential Republican primary voters, which is close to his all-time high of 63 percent in this survey. This puts him 49 points ahead of his closest challenger, DeSantis. The Florida governor comes in a distant second in the lower teens with 13 percent support nationally among potential GOP primary voters. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley comes in six points behind with seven percent support, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy (six percent),” the outlet’s report continued, citing the survey.
Pence, meanwhile, followed with 5 percent support in the survey, which helps explain the former vice president’s decision to withdraw.
According to our latest tracking, the bulk of the GOP’s electorate (62%) would back Trump if the primary or caucus were held in their state today, while 13% would support DeSantis. https://t.co/zpObC29kvJ pic.twitter.com/1UhrdvYaT1
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) October 24, 2023
“This is not my time,” Pence said Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas.
“Traveling across the country over the past six months, I came here to say it’s become clear to me: this is not my time,” the ex-veep told the crowd. “So, after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president, effective today.”
“Now, I’m leaving this campaign but let me promise you, I will never leave the fight for conservative values, and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land,” he said. “So help me God.”
“You know, we always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets. The only thing that would have been harder than coming up short would have been if we’d never tried at all,” Pence added.
“Pence’s theory of his candidacy was simple – he broke from then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, and refocused on the core conservative principles that founded the modern Republican Party with Ronald Reagan, his political beacon,” CNN reported after Pence dropped the news.
The outlet noted further:
Pence, who was Indiana governor and a US congressman before being vice president, announced his campaign in early June. He chose to launch his campaign in Iowa, rather than his home state of Indiana, an indication of how much importance he was placing on the early voting state.
He attempted to visit all of Iowa’s 99 counties, focusing on face-to-face interactions in intimate settings. The Midwestern native leaned on his faith and courted fellow conservative evangelicals, a crucial voting bloc in the state.
Pence’s campaign struggled to gain momentum and faced difficulties qualifying for the initial two debates. His decision to withdraw was met with criticism from Trump’s base.
In recent national polls, Trump and President Joe Biden have been closely matched. However, Trump seems to be gaining an advantage over Biden in crucial swing states.
A recent PRRI Research/Ipsos survey, released last week, showed that Trump is slightly ahead of Biden in a national head-to-head race, with 48% support compared to Biden’s 46%, while 6% of respondents indicated no preference for either candidate, according to Breitbart News.
“However, Trump has a clear advantage over Biden in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, leading Biden by a difference of six points—49 percent to the 80-year-old’s 43 percent,” the outlet added, citing the survey’s results.
Earlier surveys have consistently indicated Trump’s lead over Biden in pivotal swing states.
A poll conducted by Bloomberg/Morning Consult among voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin revealed that Trump held a 4-percentage-point advantage over Biden. This was attributed to widespread dissatisfaction with the vice president’s economic policies.
