That’s the takeaway from the new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll out this morning — while the former president still holds significant sway among Iowa Republicans, his standing just isn’t what it used to be.
Trump’s favorability rating among self-identified Republicans in Iowa is down from 91% fav/7% unfav in Sept. 2021 (+84) to 80% fav/18% unfav now (+62).
And the share of Republicans who said they’d “definitely vote for him” if he was the party’s 2024 presidential nominee dropped from 69% in June of 2021 to 47% now.
Among other presidential hopefuls, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis sports a 74% favorable rating among Republicans, with just 6% rating him unfavorably (+68) and 20% not sure. Former Vice President Mike Pence’s favorability rating among Republicans is 66%, with 26% viewing him unfavorably (+40). And former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s favorability rating is at 53% favorable, with 8% viewing her unfavorably (+45) and a whopping 40% not sure.
It’s a good day to get new data from Iowa, because both Haley and DeSantis will be in the state. And with Trump set to swing through the state just a few days later, his team clearly has an eye on the developments there.
A Trump adviser told NBC News’ Dasha Burns that Trump will also be unveiling some new endorsements and members of his eastern Iowa leadership while in the state. And the adviser sought to make a contrast between Trump and DeSantis style and substance.
In other campaign news…
In case it wasn’t clear: DeSantis hasn’t said publicly if he’s running for president, but he has said privately that he is planning to jump into the race, the Washington Post reports, citing “two people familiar with his comments.” And if he does, he’ll have some help from a new outside group that launched on Thursday, helmed by former Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli.
Educating the Young(kin): Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another potential presidential contender, participated in a CNN town hall Thursday night focused on education. NBC News’ Gary Grumbach rounded up some of the highlights.
Manager musings: The Hill digs into the “chatter” around who could serve as Biden’s re-election campaign manager, noting two leading contenders include Democratic National Committee executive director Sam Cornale and Jenn Ridder, who was the national state’s director for Biden’s first presidential run.
More from Wednesday’s GOP dinner: Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott told NBC News’ Liz Brown-Kaiser and Julie Tsirkin that he was not invited to the Senate Leadership Fund dinner on Wednesday featuring Senate Republicans amid his squabble with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Candidates on the cartels: Each of the declared GOP presidential candidates, including Trump, Haley and Vivek Ramswamy, told Real Clear Politics that Mexican drug cartels should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
Schiff’s struggle: NBC News’ Alex Seitz-Wald writes that Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s high-profile fights against Trump “may not be enough to make the former Blue Dog budget hawk a ‘progressive champion,’ as he is billing himself in the California Senate race.”
Wandering down this road that we call the campaign trail: Actor Ben Savage of “Boy Meets World” fame discussed his run for Schiff’s House seat on Good Morning America, saying, “Of course issues like housing, homelessness, health care are very important and near and dear to my heart, but it’s really about changing the tone.”
Yet another bad headline for Santos: A Brazilian man convicted of fraud in 2017 wrote in a new declaration that New York GOP Rep. George Santos was “the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested.”