Trump leads the endorsement primary
The Republican presidential candidate with the most institutional support is the one who decided not to show up tonight: Trump. He has 364 endorsement points, according to 538’s endorsement tracker, which assigns a certain number of points to each endorsement a candidate gets depending on how prominent the endorser is. DeSantis is in second place, but way, way behind, with 43 endorsement points.
![PHOTO: Rep. candidate poll graphic](https://i.abcnewsfe.com/a/6bd25551-fb14-441a-bac3-d5cd62fde16d/rep-candidate-political-graphic-abc-jt-230927_1695842570786_hpEmbed_11x12.jpg)
This is important because the candidate with the most endorsement points by the time of the Iowa caucuses usually wins the nomination. Given how strong Trump’s polling lead is at the moment, one of the few things that could (maybe) stop him is Republican party leaders closing ranks around another candidate. So far, there’s no sign of that happening.
—Analysis by Nathaniel Rakich of 538