In the first Republican Party 2024 primary poll conducted since Ron DeSantis officially entered the race, Donald Trump still holds a commanding lead over the other candidates.
The former president has a substantial lead over the Florida governor, with Mr Trump ahead with 43 per cent of the vote and Mr DeSantis in second place with 18 per cent.
Commissioned by American Greatness, the poll of 500 likely South Carolina Republican primary voters was conducted by National Research Inc.
The results were published on 26 May and have South Carolina Senator Tim Scott in third place with 12 per cent of the vote and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in fourth place with 10 per cent.
As with Mr DeSantis, Senator Scott only declared his candidacy last week on 22 May, with the Florida governor officially announcing his run for the White House on 24 May in a glitchy and much-derided Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk.
“Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The former president has been taking aim at Mr DeSantis for months, attacking him on a number of issues including his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in his state, and insisting he would not have been elected without a Trump endorsement.
Since his campaign launch, Mr DeSantis has blitzed rightwing media with appearances and has now hit the campaign trail with stops scheduled in 12 cities across three early voting states this week — Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
Four other GOP candidates failed to make much of an impression in the American Greatness poll, with Asa Hutchinson, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Sununu each getting one per cent of the vote.
On the question of favourability, Mr Trump leads Mr DeSantis by only six points, with 72 per cent to 66 per cent.
However, slightly more of those polled had an unfavourable opinion of Mr Trump versus the Florida governors, at 25 per cent to 24 per cent.
