Critics of Donald Trump who hoped someone would emerge from the field of 2024 GOP candidates to threaten his grasp on the party are having to deal with new polling that shows the former president maintaining an enormous lead, Politico reported.
And the support for Trump is expanding.
And one thing creating difficulties for a potential Trump challenger to emerge is the fact that lower polling candidates are refusing to step aside before voting begins.
“No one’s getting out,” veteran New Hampshire-based Republican strategist Dave Carney told Politico. “All the ‘No Trump’ voters are divided among four people. And math is a very simple process.”
At this point in 2016, Trump was 3 percentage points behind Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in Iowa, but he nevertheless went on to win the GOP contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — and ultimately the GOP nomination.
As the first votes approach, Trump's rivals have failed to even come close to posing a threat to his lead, even with help of super PACs and a combined $167 million to date spent on advertisements, according to data reviewed by Politico.
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Notably, Trump's rivals seem less focused on attacking him than they are each other, as evidenced by the ramp-up in attacks on Nikki Haley.
“Trump has never slipped," Arizona Republican strategist Barrett Marson told Politico. "And DeSantis and Haley would rather attack each other than the guy they are really running against. Everyone is struggling to come in second place in a race where only first place pays anything.”
According to Trump's campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, the candidates' cannibalization of each other "is like watching two JV teams tripping over each other set to the theme of Benny Hill playing in the background."
"And to make matters worse for Trump’s opponents, there’s no guarantee that if more candidates drop out, their supporters will shift to another Trump alternative, anyway," reported Politico.
"Half of likely DeSantis voters in a recent University of New Hampshire/CNN poll said Trump would be their second choice, while more Ramaswamy voters would break for Trump than DeSantis."
Read the full report over at Politico.
