The Emerson College poll done on 1000 registered voters between Aug 16 and 17, has revealed that Biden’s presidency accrued 47% job disapproval rating with a surge of people who are neutral to his presidency. This means, the Republicans chance to win back presidency is better than ever. However, there are many strong contenders in Camp Red.
While Trump has a steady voters base, Vivek Ramasamy, the conservative entrepreneur has threatened Florida Governor Rob DeSantis and his Super-PAC ‘Never Back Down’ (Super PAC is a Political Action Committee with unlimited political expenditure allowance). He has grown his support by eight points as opposed to DeSantis’ decrease by eleven points. Moreover, while the two tied at second place with 10% far behind Trump’s majority support of a whopping 56% – In Ramasamy’s corner, only 47% said they may change heir minds and vote for a different candidate while 68% showed a shadow of doubt in their support for DeSantis. This has made the governor’s Super-Pac tense and urged DeSantis to “take a sledgehammer” to Ramasamy in a now leaked memo.
To this memo, Ramasamy responded on X, “Another boring, establishment attack from Super PAC-creation ‘Robot Ron’ who is literally taking lame, pre-programmed attack lines against me for next week’s debate. ‘Hammer Ramaswamy’”
The poll release states that DeSantis’s drop is similar to that seen in Emerson’s New Hampshire poll showing former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie surpassing DeSantis by 1 point for second place in the state, a statistical tie.
Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said in a release that Ramaswamy has made improvements among voters with postgraduate degrees, taking 17 percent of that group, and with younger voters, winning 16 percent of those younger than 35. Meanwhile, DeSantis dropped in his support among postgraduate voters from 38 percent in June to 14 percent now, and he only had 15 percent of those under 35. Kimball continued, “Ramaswamy has made inroads among younger Republican Primary voters: 16% of voters under 35 support Ramaswamy, compared to 48% who support Trump and 15% DeSantis. DeSantis still holds 12% of voters over 65, while Trump holds 50% among this group and Ramaswamy holds 3%.”
In its entirety, 62% of Republican Primary voters say they will definitely vote for the candidate they selected. 38% say there is a chance they could change their mind and vote for someone else.
The aspects of this poll and the following leaked memo by DeSantis’ Super-PAC are important as the Republican primary debate commences next week and Trump has officially backed down from participation. This a golden opportunity for other GOP (Grand Old Party, another name for the Republican Party) presidential candidates to state their case as more than 80% of Republican primary voters said they plan to watch the debate. In a situation as conducive as this, Vivek Ganapathy Ramasamy has literally given other candidates a run for their money.
In this debate, the world will witness if USA is ready for an Indian-origin Hindu President.
Other contenders in the race to presidency from the Red Party who make it The Washington Post’s Top 10 Republican presidential candidates for 2024 rankings are Asa Hutchinson, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott among others. Among them Christie and Pence seem to be a favourite as they occupy 3% votes of the pollsters repectively whereas 11% are still undecided.
Sources used:
- https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2023-national-poll-desantis-fades-into-tie-with-ramaswamy-trump-maintains-majority-of-gop-support-ahead-of-debate/
- https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4159394-emerson-poll-desantis-ramaswamy-tied/
- https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/filing-pac-reports/registering-super-pac/#:~:text=Super%20PACs%20are%20independent%20expenditure,and%20other%20independent%20political%20activity.
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/us/politics/vivek-ramaswamy-ron-desantis-republican-primary.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/29/top-10-republican-presidential-candidates-2024-ranked/
