Forty-four percent of Iowa voters who self-identify as Republicans said they view Trump very favorably and 36% said they view him as mostly favorably while 18% of respondents expressed the opposite view, a release on the poll said.
However, Iowa voters' favorable view of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who still has not announced whether he intends to run, place him right behind Trump. Forty-two percent of Republicans in Iowa said they have a "very favorable" view of DeSantis and 33% said they hold a "mostly favorable" view of him.
At the same time, two thirds of respondents said they hold a very or mostly favorable view of former Vice President Mike Pence and about half share the same opinion of former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the release said.
"Someone who has already held the office and who won the state twice would be presumed to be the front-runner, and I don't know that we can say that at this point. There's nothing locked in about Iowa for Donald Trump," pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the Iowa poll, said.
Almost three-fourths of the respondents, or 74%, said they would likely vote for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, including 47% who said they would definitely vote for Trump and 27% who said they would probably vote for him, the release said.
28 February 2023, 16:20 GMT
Iowa is the first US state to vote in the Republican primary elections and is often viewed as a bellwether state indicating the political direction of the country.
The survey was conducted on March 5-8 via telephone interviews with 805 adult residents of Iowa, according to the release.