His candidacy was supported by 61% of respondents

Donald Trump maintains a dominant position in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 elections, having gained the support of more than half of the party's voters.

This became known from an opinion poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos.

The poll showed that 61% of Republicans said they would vote for the former US president to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley received the support of 11% of Republicans. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy received 5%, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: 2%, and 8% said they were undecided.

The first ballots in the 2024 US elections will be cast in the Iowa Republican caucuses on January 15.

The poll found little evidence that Republican voters are leaning toward Trump due to a series of criminal charges against him at the federal and state levels.

Fewer than a quarter of Republican respondents said they believe the allegations that Trump incited election fraud or incited a crowd of his supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021 - two of the central charges in a federal criminal case set to go to trial in the midst of a state-by-state nominating battle.

The poll also found little sign that Republican voters who oppose Trump are rallying around one of his rivals. Haley's standing has improved since September, when a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed her in fourth place with 4%.

But she and the other candidates have only fallen further behind Trump, who was supported by 51% of Republicans in that poll.

The online poll, which involved 1,689 Republicans, was conducted from December 5 to 11. Its confidence interval is plus or minus 3 percentage points.