JUST IN: DeSantis Holds 14-Point Lead Over Trump Among GOP Voters in New WSJ Poll
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A new Wall Street Journal poll among GOP primary voters reveals Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds a 14-point lead over former President Donald Trump for the 2024 run for the White House.
This pool comes on the heels of a USA Today/Suffolk University poll that shows Trump’s support cratering among Republican voters who would prefer someone else to lead the party’s agenda in the run-up to 2024.
Writing for WSJ, John McCormick reports:
In a hypothetical contest between the two, Mr. DeSantis beats Mr. Trump, 52% to 38%, among likely GOP primary voters contemplating a race in which the first nomination votes will be cast in just over a year.
The poll found that Mr. DeSantis is both well-known and well-liked among Republicans who say they are likely to vote in a party primary or nominating contest, with 86% viewing the Florida governor favorably, compared with 74% who hold a favorable view of Mr. Trump. Only one in 10 likely GOP primary voters said they didn’t know enough about Mr. DeSantis to venture an opinion of him.
Among all registered voters, Mr. DeSantis is viewed favorably by 43%, compared with 36% for the former president. Favorable views of Mr. Trump were the lowest recorded in Journal polling dating to November 2021 and have been pulled down by a decline in positive feelings among Republicans. Since March, his favorable rating among GOP voters has fallen to 74% from 85%, while the share who view him unfavorably has risen to 23% from 13%.
Since Trump announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2024, he has been embroiled in many news stories that have not necessarily served him well politically.
He privately dined with antisemite Kanye West and White Supremacist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. He’s lost several legal maneuvers surrounding allegations of illegal possession of classified documents after he left the presidency, and his hand-picked candidates in swing states lost in the midterms by a stunning two out of 14.
