- Donald Trump holds a commanding lead in a new poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers.
- This slice of Iowa Republicans also views the former president more favorably than ever.
Likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers view former President Donald Trump more favorably than ever even after he attacked Gov. Kim Reynolds, according to a new closely watched poll.
Trump is viewed more favorably by this group of Iowa Republicans than at any other point during the 2016 cycle, according to The Des Moines Register. Trump later lost to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by just over 3 percentage points.
A new Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll found that Trump is viewed favorably by 65% of likely GOP caucus-goers and unfavorably by 33%. Trump is viewed "very favorably" by 42% of respondents, the best mark in this category of any of the other 2024 challengers.
The poll, conducted by J. Ann Selzer's Selzer & Co, is considered the gold standard of the state's caucuses.
Trump's standing comes after he publicly lashed out at Reynolds, suggesting Iowa's leader owed him an endorsement as thanks for her first election win. Interestingly, Reynolds is still by far the most popular figure in the state among Republicans. A whopping 81% of likely caucus-goers view her favorably, including 50% who view her very favorably.
Overall, Trump holds a commanding 23-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (41-19%), the only other challenger to reach double-digits. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is at 9%. But Trump's commanding lead shrinks when you drill down further into the data.
Iowan Republicans, who have kicked off the presidential calendar for decades, are notorious for taking their time to make up their minds. A majority (52%) of likely caucus-goers said they could still be persuaded to support another candidate.
If Republicans are given the option to expand their choices, Trump's lead over DeSantis shrinks to 13 percentage points if first and second choices are included. If you expanded even further to include actively considering responses, Trump's lead shrinks to just three percentage points. The field including first, second, and actively considering then becomes Trump (64%), DeSantis (61%), Tim Scott (53%), former UN ambassador Nikki Haley (40%), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (34%), and former Vice President Mike Pence at 32%.
The Iowa Poll was conducted Aug. 13-17, 2023 by telephone. An initial sample of 2,953 randomly selected Iowans was screened for some questions to find those who will definitely or probably attend the 2024 Republican caucuses. This yielded a sample of 406 likely caucus-goers. The margin of error for this group is +/- 4.9 percentage points.