(SNews) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has surged past his GOP rival Gov. Ron DeSantis to take second place in the primary race polls.
A new Echelon Insight poll found Ramaswamy rising among GOP voters while DeSantis’s campaign turns cold.
However, the poll shows that President Donald Trump has a companding 40-point lead over his challengers.
Trump is the clear frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
55 percent of likely primary voters support the 45th president.
But notably, DeSantis, the longstanding second-place option, has continued his descent in the poll, falling into third place.
Ramaswamy received 15 percent support, while DeSantis received just 12 percent in the RNC debate qualifying poll.
Ramaswamy’s second-place stance aligns with a Kaplan Strategies poll released Monday that also found him above DeSantis.
Republican Main Street Partnership president and CEO Sarah Chamberlain said Ramaswamy “has risen well above expectations and is currently leading the pack of challengers.”
Chamberlain said:
While Donald Trump remains the frontrunner, Republican voters seeking an alternative candidate are beginning to coalesce around a few top-tier choices. For much of the past year that was Gov. DeSantis, but Vivek Ramaswamy has risen well above expectations and is currently leading the pack of challengers.
Voters are clearly hungry for something new – no group more than the suburban women who often decide elections.
If Mr. Ramaswamy, Gov. DeSantis, or any of the other hopefuls want a serious chance at winning the nomination, appealing to those voters should be top priority.
After DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence received four percent, while Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R) garnered three percent support. Chris Christie is the only other candidate who received at least one percent support.
The Republican Main Street Partnership, in conjunction with Echelon Insights, surveyed 1,017 likely Republican primary voters nationwide from August 15 to August 17. The survey has a ±3.9 percent margin of error.
Nevertheless, there will likely be a shift among Trump’s challengers as the GOP‘s first 2024 debate gets underway next week in Milwaukee.
slaynews.com/news/ramaswamy-surges-past-desantis-take-second-place-behind-trump/
