(DCWatchdog.com) – Florida’s GOP Governor, Ron DeSantis, has emerged as the most popular likely 2024 presidential candidate among Republican voters, beating former President Donald Trump’s popularity by a wide margin, according to a new public opinion poll.
Trump’s popularity among Republican voters has plunged as he is tangled in legal battles and midterm election losses of candidates he endorsed, according to the public opinion survey by USA Today and Suffolk University.
The poll found only about one-third of GOP and right-leaning voters – or 31% – support the 2024 presidential candidacy of Trump.
Conversely, 61% of the pro-Republican voters like Trump’s policies but don’t want him to be the GOP leader and US president again.
At the same time, two-thirds of conservative and conservative-leaning voters support DeSantis for President of the United States.
When the poll pitted them against each other, the score was 56% for DeSantis to 33% for Trump, a 23-point lead for the Florida governor.
At the same time, 65% of Republican and GOP-leaning voters would like to see DeSantis as a presidential candidate in 2024. Just 24% of them are against a DeSantis candidacy.
“Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump,” commented David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
According to the poll, support for a third Donald Trump run for the White House has slumped in the past few months.
In July, 60% of Republican voters still supported that, with the number dropping to 56% in October. It has now declined to 47% – compared with 45% who oppose the new Trump candidacy for the White House.
The survey showed in December, 64% of Republicans viewed Trump favorably compared with 75% in October. Those viewing him unfavorably increased from 18% to 23%.
At the same time, the survey results claim in a head-to-head rematch with Biden, Trump would lose a general election by 40% to 47%. In October, Biden’s advantage stood at 46% to 42%.
About 40% of Democrat voters want President Joe Biden to seek reelection, down from 45% in October, according to the poll. Among all US voters, only 23% want him to run again.
The USA Today poll found that Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis would defeat Biden in a head-to-head race, scoring 47% to 43%.
According to Paleologos, DeSantis’s chances to clinch the 2024 GOP nomination would depend on whether he would have a “one-on-one race with the former president.
“Add in a number of other Republican presidential candidates who would divide the anti-Trump vote and you have a recipe for a repeat of the 2016 Republican caucuses and primaries when Trump outlasted the rest of the divided field,” the pollster commented.
The USA Today/Suffolk University poll questioned 1,000 registered voters by landline and cellphone last week, Wednesday through Sunday, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The sample had 374 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, with an error margin of 5.1 points.
What is your opinion? If you’re a Republican, do you prefer Trump or DeSantis? Please share your thoughts by emailing [email protected]. Thank you.
