In the wake of the Family Leadership Summit forum, where some of the Republican candidates got a chance to air their views with Tucker Carlson, there’s been some movement in the polls.
The new Harvard Harris poll that came out on Friday shows former President Donald Trump completely dominating the field, at 52 percent, up 40 points on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is at 12 percent.
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy has moved up to 10 percent. This movement for him supports another poll —that showed him tied at 12 percent with DeSantis—which we reported.
On top of that, it shows Trump leading in the general election as well, beating Biden by 5 points — at 45 to 40 percent — even in the wake of all the legal actions being taken against him.
Now, some have argued that independents might shy away from Trump because of the legal trouble. But this poll has Trump up over Biden with independents, as well.
Independents
(R) Trump: 45% (+18)
(D) Biden: 27%
That’s a big amount and perhaps the most interesting thing in the poll. Sixteen percent are undecided, which is a fair amount, and that may ultimately decide the race — that’s a lot up for grabs, although there’s still a lot of time in the race.
Trump would beat Kamala Harris by an even bigger number, according to this poll, 47 to 38 percent, which is nine points. That might explain why, for the moment, they’re sticking with Joe Biden.
If Trump were to step out, DeSantis would still be the overwhelming second choice among GOP voters.
Sixty-eight percent say that Biden is “showing he is too old to be president,” and 64 percent said he shouldn’t run again. They are no doubt seeing his incoherence day after day; the Biden team can’t hide it. And it’s getting worse as we saw over the past couple of days at his remarks in Philadelphia and on artificial intelligence. That’s going to factor into the election more and more, as we get closer.
The biggest concerns are on the economy, which is where Biden falls because most people think Biden hasn’t done a good job. Three-quarters of the people said that inflation has affected them and for 60 percent, that or the economy is their main issue. Most people, whether they were Republican or Democrat, wanted candidates to concentrate on things like the economy, not foreign wars.
This poll was similar to the poll that previously found 74 percent thought the country was on the wrong track under Joe Biden. In this poll, less than 30 percent believed that the country was on the “right track.” They were also not happy with the Secret Service shutting down the White House cocaine investigation less than two weeks after the cocaine was discovered — 63 percent said that there should be further investigation.
Of those who were following the stories about the IRS whistleblowers, more than 60 percent believed that they were credible, so the Democrats’ efforts to shoot them down are not succeeding. Respondents also agreed with the whistleblowers that the DOJ was covering up for Bidens.
A prior Harvard Harris poll in May also showed Trump up on Biden.