These polling results will be more meaningful in 12 months. The only thing certain is Pence is not now nor will he be in the future a viable Republican candidate. De Santis is the only current possible candidate who has some of the qualities the MAGA Base likes. He is brash, uses the government against political opponents, ant-woke, all of which demonstrates his bigotry and fascism. But what they are looking for is someone who actually says white supremacists stand back and stand by, and some on the other side are fine people i.e. he has to explicitly tell them he is a true believer. Until someone speaks exactly like Trump and is better than Trump, Trump will remain front runner.

The MAGA Base is religious in their support for Trump. Because he is a narcissist he has to be the winner, so he will therefore direct his supporters to continue their support for him .... whatever that will mean at primary time. Despite the fact he does not have financial support form large donors, remember he ran a very lean campaign in 2016, instead utilizing the free use of media in several format and platforms. I suspect he will rely on the same paradigm and media will have no choice but to follow him. For these and other reasons, I continue to see him as front runner. I make no predictions whether he will or can win a general but remember, 76M people voted for him and also remember the swing states have passed election laws which could disenfranchise enough anti-Trump voters to change the results. A small number of thousands of votes could change the results.

ignorance is the enemy
without equality there is no liberty
America can survive bad policy, but not destruction of our Democratic institutions