Donald Trump widens the gap on Ron DeSantis in a clash in the Republican primary, which is still hypothetical given that the Florida governor has not formalized his candidacy for the White House. According to a poll by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, the former president has 50% of the vote versus the Republican governor’s 24%. Compared to last February, Trump sees his lead over DeSantis grow by four points.
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The others are much further away, with Mike Pence, who has not yet formalized his entry into the field, at 7% and Nikki Haley, the only one already officially in the running, at 5%. The poll comes after Trump mobilized his base over the past few days over his alleged imminent arrest by the Manhattan attorney. And last Saturday he held his first real campaign rally in Waco, with images of the attack on Congress on the screens and the music to the video showing him with the January 6 “political prisoners.”
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So far, DeSantis’ approach is completely different and he’s running a sort of shadow campaign focused on promoting his book in the states where the first rounds of the primary will be held. And there’s good news for the governor on that front because, according to polls cited by Axios, DeSantis leads by eight points in Iowa and is neck and neck with Trump in New Hampshire, the first two states where the voting takes place. “If national polls clearly give Trump the lead, but these polls show DeSantis does much better in states that vote earlier and where voters are more observant,” reads the site’s analysis of the primary.