Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is steadily gaining ground in the GOP presidential primary race against former President Donald Trump, polling shows.
A recent Emerson College poll conducted from June 19-20 showed that Trump still maintains a lead over DeSantis, 59% to 21%. DeSantis's support increased since the college's April poll, which marked him at 16%.
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Trump is the GOP front-runner in most polls, with a June CBS News poll showing him holding 62% of the vote. However, his support has slowly dwindled since April, coinciding with his criminal indictment out of Manhattan and a federal indictment from the Department of Justice. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in both cases.
Most Republican candidates have yet to break into double digits, with former Vice President Mike Pence coming close at 6% of the vote in the June Emerson College poll.
“In the past year, the Republican primary has remained statistically unchanged,” Spencer Kimball, polling director at Emerson College, said in a statement. “However, DeSantis has made inroads with women voters over the last few months; Trump led DeSantis among women voters 58% to 17% in April, but now leads 53% to 26% in June, a 14-point improvement for DeSantis.”
DeSantis also leads Trump in some battleground states. A poll from Public Opinion Strategies showed the Florida governor defeating President Joe Biden in a matchup, while Trump loses to Biden in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, three crucial states that will help determine the next president and control of Congress.
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Eleven GOP candidates have entered the race, the latest being former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who launched his bid for the White House on Thursday. Other high-profile candidates include Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), former Govs. Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, and Chris Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, among others.
The Emerson College national poll was conducted among 1,015 registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.