Though he has not yet formally declared his candidacy, it is widely presumed that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be in the running for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, as is anticipated to pose the greatest challenge to the re-election plans of former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis has gained some momentum in that regard recently, and one new poll even showed the governor with a slight lead over the former president among registered voters likely to participate in the primary elections, Breitbart reported.
However, the vast majority of other polls continue to show ample support for Trump over all other potential contenders, including DeSantis.
Trump holds a lead overall
The new poll comes from CNN/SSRS and surveyed 1,045 Republicans or Republican-leaning independents between March 8-12 with an average margin of error of 3.8 percent, though that margin of error and the sample size of respondents varied for some questions.
All respondents were first asked about their level of enthusiasm to participate in the 2024 GOP primary, and the 963 who signaled their intent to participate were then presented with a list of currently declared and potential candidates and asked who they would support.
Overall, Trump was in first place with 40 percent, followed by DeSantis in second with 36 percent, while all other possible contenders were way behind with 6 percent or less in support.
DeSantis leads among registered voters, other subgroups
The demographic breakdown on that particular question told a somewhat different story than the overall top-line result, however, particularly among registered voters.
In that instance, DeSantis pulled ahead to a two-point lead over Trump, 39-37 percent, though that difference is within the 4.2 percent sampling error for that subgroup.
2024 National Republican Primary
• DeSantis — 39%
• Trump — 37%
• Haley — 7%
• Pence — 6%
• T. Scott — 2%
• Sununu — 2%
• Hutchinson — 1%
• Pompeo — 1%
• Youngkin — 1%CNN/SSRS | 963 RV | March 8-12https://t.co/8zj8DWPyAL pic.twitter.com/g6vJaQfEpJ
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) March 14, 2023
DeSantis also prevailed over Trump among white voters, 38-36 percent, voters older than 45, 40-35 percent, those earning more than $50,000 annually, 41-33 percent, and among whites with a college degree, 41-23 percent.
Trump, meanwhile, maintained a lead over DeSantis among men, 40-39 percent, women, 40-32 percent, people of color, 56-27 percent, voters younger than 45, 48-28 percent, those earning less than $50K annually, 52-27 percent, and among whites without a college degree, 43-38 percent.
Trump clearly leads in most other polls
The particular results of this poll aside, Breitbart noted that most of the other major polls have consistently shown former President Trump with a clear and decisive margin of support over Gov. DeSantis.
In fact, according to the RealClearPolitics average of GOP 2024 primary polls, Trump draws 43.9 percent support, which is nearly 16 points higher than the average 28 percent support that DeSantis has garnered.
There is no mistaking the fact that both Trump and DeSantis are the obvious frontrunners for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and though Trump may hold a commanding lead at this rather early point in the process, things can certainly change and the current margin may not be entirely insurmountable for DeSantis.