Iowa Republicans Support Trump Skipping Debates, According to NBC Poll

Most likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers are saying that it doesn’t matter to them that former President Donald Trump has been skipping the GOP presidential debates, but almost half still think he should participate in at least one of the events before the caucuses open on Jan. 15.

According to the latest NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll, 57% of the likely GOP caucus participants said it does not matter that Trump, the clear front-runner in the race for the party’s nomination, is not participating in the debates, but 42% said they think he should take the stage in at least one before the statewide caucuses, reports NBC News.

Trump is expected to skip the party’s third debate, which NBC is hosting on Nov. 8. He also did not take part in the first two presidential debates.

The caucusgoers, though, were divided on their opinion of the debates among Republicans who support Trump and those who support a different candidate:

• Eight out of 10 likely caucusgoers who support Trump said it didn’t matter if he is in at least one debate.
• 60% of caucusgoers supporting a different candidate said he should participate in at least one debate, but 40% said it doesn’t matter to them whether he does.

Meanwhile, Trump was the first choice of most of the likely caucusgoers, the poll showed:

• Trump, 43%.
• Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, tied at 16%.
• South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, 7%.
• Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, tied at 4%.
• North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, 3%.
• Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, 1%.
• Undecided, 3%.
• None of the above, 2%.

The poll was conducted Oct. 22-26 of 404 likely Republican caucusgoers and had a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.