Skipping the first Republican primary debate didn't hurt former President Donald Trump's double-digit lead over his rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
According to a new Morning Consult poll conducted Thursday, 58% of potential Republican primary voters said they would support Trump for the Republican presidential nomination next year, which is unchanged from surveys the polling firm released on Monday before he skipped Wednesday's debate.
Even though most potential primary voters wanted the former president to attend, the results show that Trump paid no price for skipping the event.
Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who was attacked by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, increased support among potential Republican primary voters, from 10% to 11%, though the gain was within the poll's three-point margin of error.
Neither Haley nor Pence saw any post-debate movement and both are polling significantly lower than Ramaswamy, at 3% and 6%, respectively.
Backing for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was among the more vocal of Trump's critics during the debate, also increased by one point, from 3% to 4%.
In lieu of attending the debate, Trump decided to grant an interview to former Fox host Tucker Carlson, which was broadcast simultaneously on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The former president said his interview garnered more than 100 million views in less than four hours Wednesday night and grew to more than 154 million views, over 153,000 reposts, and more than 537,000 likes by Thursday morning, with no sign of slowing.
According to Morning Consult, the polls were conducted Aug. 18-20 and Aug. 24 and surveyed 1,256 potential Republican primary voters. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.