Who does the indictment help in the primary?

[Tekken_Guy]

Trump, 100%.

The more victimized and persecuted he can claim he is, the more the numbskull base will positively react and for some deranged reason project themselves onto him.

It's very simple.

Republican voters believe they are persecuted by the liberals, so they tend to defend and support those who they see suffers a similar fate as they, or at least support those who fight back.

Same thing happened to Democrats with the Kennedy family.

The big question is if it just hardens his current base of support, or leads to mass defections from DeSantis’s camp to Trump?

[Tekken_Guy]

Trump, 100%.

The more victimized and persecuted he can claim he is, the more the numbskull base will positively react and for some deranged reason project themselves onto him.

It's very simple.

Republican voters believe they are persecuted by the liberals, so they tend to defend and support those who they see suffers a similar fate as they, or at least support those who fight back.

Same thing happened to Democrats with the Kennedy family.

The big question is if it just hardens his current base of support, or leads to mass defections from DeSantis’s camp to Trump?

Both to some degree.

However DeSantis would start as the severe underdog rather than the favourite now.

I always thought that if Ted Cruz could win Iowa, then so would DeSantis whose support comes almost exclusively from Cruz 16' primary voters.

Then he could have won N.H with the support of Sununu, and the nomination would be his.

Now all that goes to the dust bin.

Except Trump was already a strong favorite even before the indictment.

[Tekken_Guy]

Trump, 100%.

The more victimized and persecuted he can claim he is, the more the numbskull base will positively react and for some deranged reason project themselves onto him.

It's very simple.

Republican voters believe they are persecuted by the liberals, so they tend to defend and support those who they see suffers a similar fate as they, or at least support those who fight back.

Same thing happened to Democrats with the Kennedy family.

The big question is if it just hardens his current base of support, or leads to mass defections from DeSantis’s camp to Trump?

Both to some degree.

However DeSantis would start as the severe underdog rather than the favourite now.

I always thought that if Ted Cruz could win Iowa, then so would DeSantis whose support comes almost exclusively from Cruz 16' primary voters.

Then he could have won N.H with the support of Sununu, and the nomination would be his.

Now all that goes to the dust bin.

Except Trump was already a strong favorite even before the indictment.

Not after the bad way he announced his nomination, and how Ted Cruz performed in Iowa.

But that belongs to the past now.

Have you seen the recent polls? Trump is way up.

[Tekken_Guy]

It helps Trump in the primary. His supporters will get pissed off and become more eager to vote for him. But in the general, indictments and pending criminal charges hurt Trump

Energizing voters who were already planning on voting for him is a different thing entirely from flipping supporters from DeSantis or other Republicans.