Republican voters want to cancel the primary debates: poll

Republican voters evidently see little point in continuing to hold primary debates amid former President Donald Trump's seemingly insurmountable polling lead and would prefer the party move on toward targeting President Joe Biden, according to a recent survey.

Trump has not attended any of the primary debates thus far and currently sits at roughly 60% support in most polls. The remaining candidates all generally hover in the mid-single digits, except for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who still retains double-digit support.

Among Republican voters, 52% preferred that the Republican National Committee cancel the debates, in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll. Forty percent of likely voters overall expressed the same opinion.

Despite that sentiment, a large cadre of voters are still at least somewhat likely to watch the next debate, currently scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami, Fla. Fifty-five percent of likely voters said they would likely watch it, as did 66% of Republican voters.

The survey comes as tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign has suggested he may not attend the debate after he previously sought to limit the field to the top candidates. Under his proposal, the stage would have like featured him, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Conducted Oct. 18-20, the survey questioned 992 likely U.S. voters and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3%.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.