A growing number of indictments against former President Donald Trump are not hurting him at the polls, apparently.
In fact, they seem to be helping him.
In a previous CBS News/YouGov poll that was published in June, the former president held a then-large 38-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the closest competitor for the 2024 nomination. Now, nearly two months later and following a litany of charges against Trump in multiple jurisdictions, he has bolstered his lead over his next-closest rival by another 8 points.
Republican poll respondents were asked, “Of the candidates you are considering, or might consider, if the 2024 Republican primary or caucus in your state were held today, which ONE of those candidates would you vote for?”
The survey found that 62 percent said they would support Trump, with DeSantis falling to just 16 percent. No other candidate received even half of that level of support, though Vivek Ramaswamy was in third place with 7 percent.
At a recent campaign rally, Trump said Joe Biden’s ‘Justice’ Department needed to indict him one more time in order for him to not only seal the 2024 GOP nomination but the White House.
As reported by Just the News, Trump is now leading Biden in a hypothetical rematch of their 2020 battle by four points, according to a new survey.
In the most recent Premise survey, Trump had 42 percent support from registered voters, which is a four-point edge over Biden’s 38 percent. When he was pitted against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Biden was up slightly — 2 points — beating him 36-34 percent.
“The survey, conducted Aug. 2-7, follows special counsel Jack Smith’s indicting Trump on charges related to his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results,” Just the News reported.
Meantime, a growing number of Republicans have started expressing concern that there might be a strategy in place for Biden to see Trump get convicted of a felony to ensure that his chief political rival would then be disqualified from the ballot in a number of states. Were that to happen, these Republicans say, it would create chaos within the party over the loss of its nominee — or leading candidate, at least — just weeks ahead of the general election.
Worse, the Republican National Committee is pressing GOP voters to cast ballots early, as Democrats encourage their voters to do. But if that happens, and they cast a ballot for Trump it will essentially be a wasted vote if Trump is disqualified from the ballot in their state.
That said, a recent New York Times/Siena College found Trump and Biden tied at 43 percent, in spite of the former president’s legal troubles.
“In the hypothetical rematch between Biden and Trump, 14% of voters did not prefer either candidate, with 10% saying they would either vote for another candidate or they are not going to vote if they are the two choices,” Axios reported.
