There's somebody who Donald Trump didn't think he was going to have to worry about again:
Ron DeSantis.
But after the first Republican debate of the 2024 election cycle, which Trump did not attend, DeSantis is inching ever closer to our former president.
There's also a tiny bit more good news for DeSantis.
Vivek Ramaswamy's popularity may not actually be all it's cracked up to be.
Sure, Vivek has had his moments and is polling decently, especially in polls excluding Trump, but he's starting to slide.
Many are speculating that any success Vivek may have been experiencing was probably just due to his service in the role of placeholder for Trump.
When you exclude Trump from the polls, many of his supporters plug their vote in for Ramaswamy. Even when Trump is included, many of Ramaswamy's supporters are still deciding between him and Trump. Trump's fans, on the other hand, are known to be absolute fanatics.
In Iowa, DeSantis is polling at 21% after the Republican debate, way up from the 14% he was garnering before the debate.
Ramaswamy took the biggest hit after the debate, with his support in Iowa dropping from 10% down to 7%.
Trump also slipped a little bit, going from 42% support in Iowa to 41% after the debate.
The former president did not attend the debate, but that doesn't mean that he was quiet on Aug. 23.
Instead, Trump held a widely viewed interview on X in which Tucker Carlson lobbed him softball questions.
Other results from the latest poll in Iowa pointed to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley rising from 3% support to 11% support. Sen. Tim Scott had been at 8% support before the debate but is now down to 7%.
Many people felt that Scott sounded exactly like a career politician on the debate stage, something that turns off a lot of voters in the current climate.
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