Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence are tied among likely supporters of former President Donald Trump in a survey about who would win a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary, but they still come in far behind Trump among potential voters.
“If President Trump chose not to run, it’s clear his supporters are already gravitating towards VP Mike Pence, FL. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Ted Cruz,” GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said about the survey he conducted, reports Politico.
According to the poll, without Trump being included:
- DeSantis and Pence tied at 22%.
- Cruz, 19%.
- Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 6%.
- Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, 5%.
However, with Trump included in the poll, Cruz got just 3% of the voters, while Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., got 2%.
Others included in the polling were South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who all got 1%, and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who got 0%.
“[There is] no question at this juncture that President Trump would dominate the 2024 field with no potential challenger even breaking into double digits,” Fabrizio, a pollster for Trump's 2020 campaign, said.
DeSantis, a former congressman, has become popular among conservatives after keeping his state's economy largely open during the pandemic. Last weekend, a straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference showed DeSantis getting 43% of the vote on potential nominees when Trump was not listed as an option for 2024. Pence, meanwhile, got just 1%.
DeSantis is running for reelection in 2022 and has been filling his war chest based on the recent popularity, with his state political committee bringing in $2.7 million in February, marking the largest one-month total since he became governor. More than $550,000 of that money came from out-of-state donors, campaign finance records showed.
The poll of 1,264 Republican voters was conducted between Feb. 20 through March 2 and carried a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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