In new polling from Emerson College, it appears that Donald Trump’s recently unveiled federal criminal case alleging that he willfully retained sensitive government documents could have a substantial impact on his 2024 candidacy.
Half of overall voters told the pollster his indictment makes them less likely to cast a ballot for the former president next time around… though over one-fourth of those people said they’d still be backing him in the GOP primary.
The case was Trump’s second set of criminal allegations following the charges with which he was hit in New York alleging a falsification of business records in connection to hush money that was provided to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential race. He is now facing only one particularly noteworthy Republican primary challenger: Ron DeSantis, the current governor of Florida. DeSantis, who was long expected to throw his hat in the rhetorical ring, recently finally confirmed his ambitions to nab the nomination, and he’s generally the only other GOP primary candidate reaching double-digit levels of support against Donald Trump. In the Emerson College polling, Trump was still at more than a majority of the support in June, with 59 percent. DeSantis had 21 percent.
Compared to Trump, DeSantis fared more poorly against Biden in hypothetical general election match-ups measured by Emerson College. In the meantime, Trump also has a series of other primary challengers, even including Mike Pence, who served as vice president back alongside him. None of these figures are gaining much traction, though there is still a long time to go — and criminal cases against Trump that could impact his availability for the campaign trail and potentially re-becoming president.
