54% of GOP Voters Would Back Trump in Hypothetical 2024 Presidential Primary - Poll Claims

By Staff, Agencies

Slightly over a month after protesters incited a riot at the US Capitol on 6 January, former president Donald Trump was acquitted at his second impeachment trial for his alleged role in inciting the events, as US senators voted 57-43 to convict the former president, but failed to reach the two-thirds majority vote needed.

A new poll has shown that in a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary, Trump would be the favored candidate for most Republicans, with 54 percent of respondents saying they would back the former president.

59 percent of GOP voters said Trump should play a “major role” in the Republican Party in the future, according to the Politico-Morning Consult poll released on 16 February.

Only 17 percent believed that Trump should play no role at all in the Republican Party.

This suggests that the former president has regained his earlier standing in a hypothetical GOP primary matchup, as the numbers echo those of late November 2020, before support for Trump plummeted in the wake of the Capitol riots on 6 January.

Now, three days after his acquittal in his second impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol, Trump’s standing has soared by 18 percentage points in an upward trend that started to take shape ahead of the Senate trial.

The poll also shows that Republican voters are now becoming less disposed to blame Donald Trump for the riots, as compared with the survey carried out on 6-7 January, in the immediate aftermath of the events.

The share of Republicans who said Trump is very or somewhat responsible for the events dropped 14 points, to 27 percent.