Fox News published a three-part series starting on August 17, 2023, that ranked each of the most likely Republican candidates. The ranking is drawing criticism for placing U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) above Vivek Ramaswamy despite better national polling for Ramaswamy’s campaign.
An article written by Ben Bartee with PJ Media claims that Scott’s ranking has nothing to do with the campaign, but rather at the whim of publishing mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Fox News Invents Cringe 'Power Rankings' to Prop Up Non-Trump, Non-Ramaswamy Candidates https://t.co/8JFll2EZOM
— PJ Media (@PJMedia_com) August 22, 2023
The ranking is broken into four tiers: Frontrunner, Contender, In The Conversation, and Outsiders.
According to Fox News, the article was created by looking at a number of factors for each of the current GOP candidates. These factors include early state voting polls, fundraising, and national polling and fundraising. Though the exact methodology is not clear, the author of the series, Remy Numa, does indicate that the factors are weighted. Early state voting and fundraising appear to be more heavily weighted than national polling after reading the three-part series.
The argument that Scott may leapfrog the suddenly surging Ramaswamy is largely attributed to the amount of campaign finance money that Scott has at his disposal.
“Scott’s greatest strength is his bank account. Buoyed by a $22 million transfer from his 2022 Senate campaign, Scott sat on $21 million in cash at the end of June, putting him in close second against Trump,” writes Numa. “There is grassroots support as well. He has more than 53,000 unique donors, and about 30% of his donations in the first half of the year were under $200.”
The power ranking places Scott on the same “tier” as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The article identifies DeSantis and Scott as the two candidates who are contenders for the nomination. Trump continues to lead the field, often by double digits.
Ramaswamy has only recently become a popular name in national circles after announcing his candidacy for U.S. President in February 2023. Much of his campaign has been privately financed by the candidate’s sizable fortune earned in finance and biotechnology.
Iowa holds the nation’s first caucus on January 15, 2024. New Hampshire holds the first delegate election in February. Voters in South Carolina elected to move their state’s GOP primary to February last year. Voters will choose the state’s nomination on February 24.
Ultimately, the Fox News Power Rankings show that any candidate who aims to take on Trump for the nomination will have a steep hill to climb. At the time of this writing, Trump held a 52.5% lead in national polling against just 13.5% for DeSantis. Ramaswamy sits at about 9%, while Scott continues with just 3.5% support.
