A new survey by private polling firm Cygnal finds former President Donald Trump still dominating the GOP presidential primary field, and political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy overtaking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place.
Trump leads with 53 percent support, followed by Ramaswamy (11.4 percent), who has moved ahead of DeSantis (10.4 percent), according to the poll. The Florida governor has plummeted from 29 percent support in March.
Ramaswamy has seen his poll numbers rise in recent months. The latest RealClearPolitics average of Republican presidential primary polls shows the Ohio biotech entrepreneur polling at 6.1 percent, in third place behind DeSantis (15.1 percent) and Trump (54.2 percent).
“Vivek started this campaign with zero name ID and didn’t even register in most polls. He’s just getting warmed up,” a confident Ramaswamy campaign told The Star News Network Thursday.
Former Vice President Mike Pence is running fourth in the Cygnal poll, with 6.6 percent support of Republican primary voters. followed by U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) (3.2 percent), and fellow South Carolinian, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (2.8 percent)
The poll of 2,000 likely 2024 general election voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.16 percent. It was conducted August 1-3.
A new GOP candidate rises in our latest national poll – @VivekGRamaswamy (11%) overtakes @RonDeSantis (10%) at 2nd. 📈 pic.twitter.com/KgLlwO2HMt
— Cygnal Polling & Analytics (@cygnal) August 10, 2023
DeSantis has been scuffling in the polls since he officially launched his campaign in late May. He’s replaced campaign manager Generra Peck amid another shakeup, according to multiple reports. The reshuffling is aimed at making the campaign meaner and leaner, with the reduction of about a third of staff, according to reports. James Uthmeier, the governor’s long-time chief of staff, will take over as campaign manager.
The new Cygnal poll shows President Joe Biden leading in a hypothetical general election re-match with Trump, 46 percent to 43 percent, with 10 percent undecided. Against a generic, non-Trump GOP nominee, Biden leads by two points (42 percent to 40 percent), with 17 percent of voters undecided.
The Democrat holds an edge despite 60 percent of the poll’s respondents saying the country is on the wrong track, with nearly 40 percent of voters holding a very unfavorable opinion of Biden.
And half of respondents support an impeachment probe into Biden’s alleged illegal influence peddling, including a quarter of Democrats and nearly half of independents.
“There are quite a few new and conventional-thought-breaking things to report out of this new national poll,” said Chris Lane, Cygnal pollster and director of Client Strategy.
“Beyond the usual horse race numbers, the top takeaway is by far the fact that 26% of Democrats support an impeachment probe into President Biden’s alleged influence peddling. In an era when everyone complains about extreme media bias and political gamesmanship, this number proves the President has a real problem, and they’re compounding.”
The polls also found Republicans are closing the gap with women and continuing modest gains among Independents. The generic ballot remains tied at 45 percent.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Ron DeSantis. Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
