The midterm elections did not go as well as anticipated for Republicans, and former President Donald Trump has been saddled with much of the blame for the poor performance, which is now reflected in a recent hypothetical 2024 election poll, Breitbart reported.
That doesn’t bode well for Trump, who just announced his re-election campaign this week, as the poll showed that more American voters, including Republicans and independents, would prefer that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis be the GOP nominee instead of the former president.
DeSantis now leading Trump
The Economist/YouGov on Wednesday released the results of its survey of 1,500 adults between Nov. 13-15 with a 3.1 percent margin of error.
The pollsters offered respondents the choice of Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis and asked, “If you had to choose, who would you rather see as the Republican nominee for President in 2024?”
Trump or DeSantis 2024: Who would you rather see as the Republican nominee for President in 2024?
Republicans:
Ron DeSantis — 46% (+7)
Donald Trump — 39%Independents:
Ron DeSantis — 34% (+13)
Donald Trump — 21%@YouGovAmerica & @TheEconomist https://t.co/AiKPdnX2xr pic.twitter.com/caW5oMJJaO— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) November 16, 2022
Among all respondents, 39 percent chose DeSantis while 26 percent picked Trump and 35 percent remained undecided.
All demographic groups prefer DeSantis over Trump
The bad news was even worse for Trump in the demographic breakdown of the respondents, as every single category preferred the Florida governor, who just won his own re-election in a landslide victory, over the former president who has been blamed, at least in part, for the less-than-stellar performance of Republicans in many other states aside from Florida.
Among registered Republicans, DeSantis beat Trump 46-39 percent, with 16 percent undecided, while among conservatives, DeSantis was picked over Trump by a margin of 51-33 percent, with 17 percent unsure.
Even among those who voted for Trump in 2020, the governor drew 49 percent support compared to 38 percent for the former president, with the remaining 13 percent undecided.
Majority don’t want Trump to run
Elsewhere in the poll results was more bad news for Trump, such as a question about whether he should run again in 2024. Overall, 27 percent said “yes” compared to 57 percent who said “no,” and the results weren’t particularly good among his base, as only 49 percent of Trump 2020 voters said “yes,” as did only 47 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of conservatives.
The pollsters also asked about Trump’s favorability and found that 41 percent had a favorable opinion while 52 percent had an unfavorable view. In comparison, DeSantis had a similar 41 percent favorable among all respondents, but an unfavorable rating of only 37 percent.
To be sure, up until this point Trump had led virtually all of the hypothetical 2024 polls, and may still prevail in some of the current surveys, but it is obvious that things have and will continue to change since the elections as Republican support shifts from Trump to DeSantis.