A recent poll showed that former President Donald Trump is clearly the favorite among the Republicans in the state of Iowa, but the numbers may not be telling the whole story.
What Happened: About 80% of Republicans surveyed were favorable toward Trump as opposed to 74% who expressed favorable opinion toward Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, MSNBC reported, citing a poll of 257 self-identified Republicans by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines
The favorability percentages for former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley were at 66% and 53%, respectively.
The finding was in line with several recent nationwide polls, which project Trump as the most likely to get the Republican nomination. A Yahoo/YouGov survey done in late February showed that Trump received the support of 45% of the respondents, with DeSantis trailing with 29% of the votes.
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Reading Between The Lines: The percentage of people who were unfavorable toward Trump was high at 18% about three times more than the 6% for DeSantis, the poll results showed.
More importantly, about 20% of the respondents were undecided toward DeSantis as opposed to 2% for Trump.
If the people in the “unsure” camp shift their allegiance to DeSantis, he could have a whopping favorability of 94%, edging out Trump.
Despite the higher favorability number the former president has received, the poll numbers are not all that positive for Trump, MSNBC White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire suggested.
“This poll is probably the best we’ve seen for Governor DeSantis in a couple of weeks now,” Lemire said. Although it does look like Trump has some momentum, "it is very, very early," he added. The number, therefore, should be taken with a measure of skepticism, he noted.
Lemire said that Trump’s campaign has begun in earnest with the CPAC speech and other appearances, and the former president has emerged as the clear favorite in the Republican Party.
DeSantis, however, has the momentum, coming off the rout of his re-election bid last year and the mostly favorable increasing coverage he gets on Fox News, he added.
DeSantis met Iowa voters on Friday along with the state’s Governor Kim Reynolds in Des Moines and said the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election which he won by 1.5 million votes suggests that voters didn’t want him to stop.
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