Former President Donald Trump is sitting on a big lead in the GOP nomination race in Georgia despite being hit with a criminal indictment charging him and 18 of his allies with trying to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 election.
Mr. Trump leads 57% to 15% over his closest rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, among likely Republican voters, according to a new survey from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The other Republican contenders are stuck in the single digits, with 14% undecided.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence, 4%.
• Vivek Ramaswamy, 3%.
• Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 3%.
• Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 2%.
Room exists for the non-Trump contenders to boost their support, as a third of the voters backing the ex-president said they’re open to switching to another candidate.
The survey included 807 likely GOP voters. The University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs conducted the poll from Aug. 16- 22.
An Atlanta grand jury indicted Mr. Trump on Aug. 15.
Half of the voters polled said they consider the charges “very serious” or “somewhat serious” compared with 44% who called them “not too serious” or “not serious at all.”
The rest of those surveyed were undecided.
The poll carries a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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