Former President Trump expanded his lead over the GOP presidential field following his federal indictment earlier this month, with over half of Republican primary voters now saying in a survey that the former president would be their first choice for the 2024 nomination.
The latest NBC News poll found that 51 percent of GOP primary voters said Trump would be their first pick for the 2024 Republican nomination, a 5-point jump from April. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in second place, currently holding 22 percent of the votes, a 9-point drop from where he stood in April.
Only 7 percent of respondents say they would choose former Vice President Mike Pence, and 5 percent say they would vote for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
No other Republican candidate received more than 4 percent support in the poll.
While a majority of Republican voters said Trump would be their first choice for the 2024 GOP nomination, Republicans are split on whether he should remain leader of the party.
Forty-nine percent of Republican voters said the former president should continue being a leader for the Republican Party —with a majority of the same voters saying Trump is their first pick for the nomination.
However, 21 percent said they would prefer another leader of the GOP, with a majority of these voters choosing DeSantis as their first pick for the nomination. Trump receives support from 1 of 5 of these voters.
Another 29 percent say that the GOP needs a new leader with “better personal behavior” as well as a different approach from the former president. These voters preferred DeSantis, Pence, Christie and other candidates as their first choice for the GOP nomination.
The new poll follows Trump’s federal indictment for his handling of classified documents that were found last year at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Authorities allege that he kept classified documents at his Florida club and that he sought to block federal officials from getting the documents back. He has pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges.
Trump on Saturday seemingly bragged about the indictment, as well as an earlier one in New York, saying they are like a “great badge of courage” during a Faith & Freedom Coalition event.
“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxist, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of courage,” the former president said.
“I’m being indicted for you and I believe the you is more than 200 million people that love our country,” he added.
The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters, conducted June 16 to 20, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
A CNN survey released last week found that Trump’s lead over the GOP field had slipped 6 points in the wake of the federal indictment.
–Updated at 12:48 p.m.