Trump holds big lead in Republican nominating contest

A poll has found 61 per cent of Republicans would vote for Donald Trump in the nominating contest to pick a challenger to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Donald Trump maintains his dominant position in the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest, drawing the support of more than half of the party's voters, according to an opinion poll.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 61 per cent of self-identified Republicans said they would vote for the former US president in the state-by-state nominating contest to pick a challenger to Democratic President Joe Biden.

None of his rivals were anywhere close.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley were each backed by 11 per cent of self-identified Republicans.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy stood at 5 per cent, while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie got 2 per cent and 8 per cent said they were undecided.

The first ballots of the 2024 US elections will be cast in Iowa's Republican caucus on January 15.

The poll found little evidence Republican voters are swayed by the battery of federal and state criminal charges Trump faces.

Fewer than one-quarter of Republican respondents said they believed accusations that Trump solicited election fraud or solicited a mob of his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 - two of the central charges in a federal criminal case due to go to trial at the height of the state-by-state nominating contest.

The poll also found few signs Republican voters opposed to Trump are rallying around one of his rivals.

Haley's position has improved since September, when a Reuters/Ipsos poll found her tied for fourth place at 4 per cent.

But she and the other candidates have only fallen farther behind Trump, who had the backing of 51 per cent of Republicans in that poll.

The online poll of 1689 self-identified Republican was conducted between December 5 and December 11. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.