A post-debate poll from Morning Consult shows former President Trump losing no ground after the declining to participate in the first Republican primary debate earlier this week. According to the poll, Trump’s position remains unchanged with 58 percent support among the Republican electorate before the debate and 58 percent support after. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis comes in a distant 2nd place with only 14 percent support – also unchanged from before the debate.
The only two candidates seeing any shift in support were tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Both candidates saw a one percent bump in support, polling at 11 percent and four percent post-debate respectively.
The first Republican presidential debate did nothing to change former President Donald Trump’s formidable lead over his rivals for the party’s 2024 nomination, according to our latest tracking. https://t.co/C0oLDDz4Oe #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/hl8EvKWsAT
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) August 25, 2023
In Donald Trump’s absence, Ramaswamy was the candidate who appeared to garner the most press attention. The energetic debater traded barbs with nearly every candidate on stage – having especially heated exchanges with former Governor Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. At least one betting odds bookmaker has Ramaswamy now as the 2nd place favorite for the Republican presidential nomination following his debate performance.
The Morning Consult poll offers little in the way of good news for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Ramaswamy is now only three points back from over taking the Florida Governor for second place. The trend does not bode well for the Florida Governor’s campaign, with several polls over the past two weeks showing the tech entrepreneur and political neophyte Ramaswamy having already pushed DeSantis out of 2nd place contention for the nomination.