When directly pitted against his main challenger for the Republican presidential nomination for 2024, Trump is still losing in yet another new round of polling, even as he continues the pile-on against this potential contender, Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis hasn’t announced a campaign, but the speculation continues — helped in significant part by the governor’s own moves, like his treks to electorally significant areas. He even showed up in Iowa, which retains its prominently early spot in the process of settling on the respective major parties’ presidential nominations, at least for the Republicans. DeSantis also recently gave a well-attended speech at a southern California institution associated with Ronald Reagan. California, with many delegates to offer for the eventual nominating convention, could majorly help decide who ends up winning the nod. Despite Trump predictably touting his own crowd size for a speech at a 2023 edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference, many empty seats were seen.
In new survey data from Marquette University, DeSantis had 51 percent of the support among all those asked for a primary pick between the two, while Trump had 49 percent. Just among registered voters, the governor’s lead increased to eight points, with 54 percent to Donald’s 46 percent. In this poll, DeSantis led among the respondents identified here as more conservative, while Trump nabbed the moderates and liberals among prospective voters in the primary. By age, DeSantis led — by a lot — among respondents 60 years old and up, while Trump had other age groups.
With 40 percent to the 32 percent backing DeSantis, Trump did lead when respondents were presented with a much longer list of potential candidates in the primary. Considering even the precedent set by the Democrats who left the presidential primary in their party in 2020 relatively early, it’s not difficult to imagine the field quickly narrowing, though.
Nikki Haley, the former ambassador in the Trump administration and past governor of South Carolina, again posted an unimpressive showing in the Marquette polling, with four percent, behind Mike Pence — and undecideds. The pace of the antagonistic comments from Trump targeted at the Florida governor versus what he’s said about Haley and other possible challengers makes it clear who most worries him: DeSantis, who has established a policy record in Florida ranging from restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity to limiting abortions and expanding the opportunities to carry a gun without a permit, the last of which was a focus of a new legislative session.
