Many voters say they donā€™t want a convicted felon in the White House. But do they mean it? And can prosecutors get to trial before the vote?

Many voters say they donā€™t want a convicted felon in the White House. But do they mean it? And can prosecutors get to trial before the vote?

Can anything stop former President Donald Trumpā€™s reelection campaign juggernaut, now that Trump has all but crushed his GOP primary opponents and pulled ahead of President Joe Biden in national polls?

While November is a long time away, and plenty could happen before then, voters do say Trump has a massive weakness: A potential criminal conviction. In poll after poll, lots of voters who shrug off Trumpā€™s four indictments say they wouldnā€™t support him if heā€™s convicted of a felony. If they mean itā€”or even if a big chunk of them doā€”they could easily be enough to keep him out of the White House.

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether they mean itā€”and, crucially, whether prosecutors can put Trump on trial in time for the rest of us to find out.

That makes prosecutorsā€™ race against the clock one of the most important narratives of the 2024 election cycle, as teams of lawyers work feverishly around the country to overcome Trumpā€™s efforts to gum up the gears of the judicial system and push the start-date of all his trials past November.