Poll: Donald Trump Soars over GOP Hopefuls in South Carolina 

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures toward journalists shouting questions as he departs t
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Former President Donald Trump dominated Republican presidential hopefuls among GOP voters in South Carolina, a National Public Affairs poll found Wednesday.

Trump earned 43 percent support of respondents, while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gained just 21 percent. Coming in third was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley with 19 percent, one of her best showings yet but short of second position.

All other GOP hopefuls only received single-digit support: Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) seven percent, former Vice President Mike Pence two percent, and Vivek Ramaswamy one percent.

The poll also asked respondents to consider each hopeful on a scale of 1 to 7. The results showed Trump held the strongest concentration of support among respondents:

While the ballot test provides a baseline, it may not be so simple: the contours of the field begin to emerge when we ask primary voters to rate the extent to which they would consider voting for each candidate on a scale of 1 to 7.

Despite holding a clear lead on the ballot, former President Trump shares a nearly equal vote consideration with Governor DeSantis– 67% and 66%, respectively. However, Trump’s support is notably more intense—40% say they almost certainly would consider voting for him. In contrast, only 20% say they would almost certainly consider voting for DeSantis. On the flip side, Liz Cheney and Chris Christie have the highest percentage of voters who would not consider voting for them at all.

The poll sampled 538 likely Republican primary voters from April 11-14 with a 4.2 percent margin of error.

The polling comes as Trump appears to be the frontrunner in many states. Trump earned a double-digit lead in the hypothetical Republican primary race in Arizona, a recent J.L. Partners survey found.

Trump held a 21-point lead over his closest Republican rival in a hypothetical Georgia GOP primary, a University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs survey revealed Friday.

In Iowa, Trump lead DeSantis by 30 percent in the latest survey conducted by Victory Insights from April 10 to April 13.

Trump also led DeSantis by 13 percent in New Hampshire, the latest survey from Saint Anselm College found.

“So, yeah, I’m leading a lot in the polls — by 35 or 40 points in almost every poll. Texas just came in and we’re almost 50 points in Texas. Now, Massachusetts is almost 50 points,” Trump told Breitbart News.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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