A new Marquette University Law School poll indicated that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a 20-point lead (60% to 40%) over former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
When asked the question: If it were a choice between just the two of them, who would you prefer as the Republican nominee for president in 2024:
Donald Trump 40%
Ron DeSantis60%.(Among Republican & ind leaning Reps)
- Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) December 1, 2022
The poll also found that DeSantis has steadily gained ground on Joe Biden. When asked who Americans would vote for if the election were today, the Florida governor went from trailing the president by nine points in early 2022 to being even (42-42).
Our new national @MULawPoll is out
DeSantis gains support, now moving up to a tie with Biden among registered voters nationwide. His support has slowly but steadily increased over the year. Biden has remained stable. 15% wish for an alternative to these two. 1/n pic.twitter.com/BDqP7dsN29
- Charles Franklin (@PollsAndVotes) December 1, 2022
On the other hand, Trump is 10 points behind Biden, a gap that has grown by two points since the beginning of 2022.
Attacks on DeSantis
A WPA Intelligence poll also noted that DeSantis is more popular among Trump's voter base than Trump himself. The negative reaction from former president's attacks on the Florida governor during the midterm elections could be one of the reasons for DeSantis’ growing popularity.
Trump declared that DeSantis was an "average" governor, despite winning re-election by historic margins in the state of Florida. At one of the former president's rallies in Pennsylvania, he called him a "prude," joking about his last name.
"Ron DeSanctimonious"
pic.twitter.com/MDawuZcBam- Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) November 6, 2022
DeSantis did not respond harshly to the attacks, which gives him the public perception of being a level-headed official who does not focus on attacking or insulting his opponents:
One of the things I've learned in this job is when you're doing, when you're leading, when you're getting things done, you take incoming fire, that's the nature of it …I don’t think any governor got attacked more particularly by corporate media than me over my four-year term. And yet, I think what you learn is all that’s just noise. And really what matters is: Are you leading? Are you getting in front of issues? Are you delivering results for people? And are you standing up for folks? And if you do that, then none of that stuff matters. And that’s what we’ve done.
“We focused on results and leadership. And, you know, at the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” DeSantis went on. “The fact of the matter is, it was the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida.”
Despite the results of many polls projecting DeSantis to outperform Trump, others still give the former president a lead, albeit by a very slim margin.
