Rama Krishna Sangem
Donald Trump is much ahead of other Republican contenders for the post of US President. He polled 48 per cent of an opinion poll held recently by American media Wall Street Journal (WSJ) followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44 years, with 24 per cent. Other aspirants like Nikki Haley with 5 per cent and Vivek Ramaswamy with 2 per cent votes are way behind in the race, while 12 per cent of those responded said they are undecided.
WSJ which conducted this poll between April 11-17 among a sample of 1,500 registered US primary voters of Republic Party, also called Grand Old Party, GOP, clearly indicated their mind that former US president Trump is their first choice for the next year’s Presidential candidacy. They view him strong and consistent with Republican values, conservative to the core, compared to other rivals within the party.
51 year old Indian American Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina who served in previous Trump administration as US ambassador to the United Nations for two years from January 2017 to December 2018 has announced her candidacy for the Presidential post from Republican party. Another Indian American Vivek Ramaswamy, 37, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur too thrown his hat in the ring for the US presidency from GOP.
However, the Republican voters haven’t taken neither Haley nor Ramaswamy seriously, as they just got 5 or less than that voters in survey of WSJ, a credible media organisation. By all accounts, the race for Republican presidential candidacy seems to be narrowing between Trump and DeSantis. Of course, it is too early to call it as the first formal ballot for GOP primaries will be held only in January-February 204.
Fast changes in the scenario
In between, many changes may happen in American politics. We just cannot rule out Haley or Ramaswamy completely. At the same time, DeSantis too may overthrow Trump by revamping his poll strategy and revising his policies on many issues like guns and abortion etc. Still one thing is clear, Trump is fast improving his position – from lagging behind DeSantis to overtaking him now, in the last four months.
Trump appears to be earning sympathy wave, thanks to criminal charges against him in a New York court launched by the Joe Biden administration. Most Republican voters who backed DeSantis in December before the criminal charges have changed their mind and now support Trump. Even if the case tighten around Trump, it won’t affect his poll prospects, the survey indicates.
At the same time, most GOP backers feel DeSantis is the strong candidate to defeat Biden next year. Interestingly, most of them said that only DeSantis can defeat Biden, while Trump may lose the election. We must remember that Biden has improved his condition afer the recent mid-term elections to the US congress. DeSantis at 44 years age is considered to fit to take on 80 years Biden, than by Trump who is 76 years now.
