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By Tim Reid<\/strong><\/p>\n Dec 11 (Reuters) – Donald Trump has a huge and expanded lead over his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in a new poll in Iowa, the state that kicks off the party’s nominating contest on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n The former president has 51% first-choice support<\/a> from people likely to take part in the Iowa caucuses next month, according to a NBC News\/Des Moines Register\/Mediacom poll released on Monday, up from 43% in the same poll conducted in October.<\/p>\n Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has 19% first-choice support in the poll – up from 16% in October – while former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is at 16%, unchanged since the last poll.<\/p>\n Iowa uses a different system to pick presidential candidates than most other states where a traditional ballot is employed. Voters in Iowa – or caucus goers – will gather for several hours in thousands of locations on Jan. 15 to debate the candidates before ranking them. Polling Iowans’ first-choice preference is the best indicator of candidates’ support.<\/p>\n Despite myriad legal problems – he faces multiple criminal charges over his role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, hush money payments to a porn star<\/a>, and stolen classified documents – Trump is currently the runaway frontrunner to secure the Republican presidential nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in next November’s election, a likely re-match of the 2020 contest.<\/p>\n J. Ann Selzer, a veteran Iowa pollster who conducted the survey, called Trump’s lead in Iowa “commanding”.<\/p>\n