Breaking News: Ron DeSantis Ahead Of Donald Trump In A Poll Regarding The Preferred Leader Of The Republican Party

Credit: CNN

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has slightly taken the lead over former President Donald Trump as the preferred leader of the GOP, according to Republicans questioned in a new national poll.

An Associated Press/NORC Center poll released on Tuesday showed that 22% of Republicans said they would prefer DeSantis to be the leader of the GOP, and 20% said that they would want Trump to be the leader.

However, more than a third of those who answered, 34%, said they didn’t know who should lead the GOP or declined to answer.

No other Republican sampled in the survey topped the 1%, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. She became the second major Republican following Trump to launch a 2024 GOP presidential campaign.

“While there’s been some reluctance to get in early, she’s setting herself apart and creating an opportunity for herself to define herself early, to establish her campaign,” longtime New Hampshire-based national Republican strategist Jim Merrill told Fox News.

Trump remains the most popular politician in the GOP.

However, while Trump was once the overall front-runner in the early 2024 GOP nomination polls, DeSantis has overshadowed him in some surveys over the past few months. Nearly every poll shows Trump and DeSantis as the clear favorites, with everyone else in the single digits.

Fox News reported:

DeSantis, a former congressman, saw his popularity soar among conservatives across the country over the past three years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a conservative culture warrior, going after media and corporations. And the Florida governor’s nearly 20-point re-election victory helped transform the one-time swing-state battleground into a red state.

DeSantis routinely dismisses talk of a 2024 White House run, but he’s dropped plenty of hints of a possible presidential bid since his re-election victory speech in November. Sources in DeSantis’ wider orbit say any presidential campaign launch would come in the late spring or early summer, after the end of Florida’s current legislative session. 

The new AP-NORC poll indicates that 19% of Republicans view Trump as the current leader of the party, with 10% saying it’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 9% saying it’s House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The poll was conducted from January 26 to January 20 with 1,068 adults and had a margin of error of 4.2%.

Many other Republicans are being speculated as making a possible presidential run in 2024.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to announce a run soon. 

Fox News shared:

Political pundits from both the left and the right torched his campaign launch, and he’s been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for controversial actions and comments he’s made during the past couple of months. In the wake of a lackluster performance by the GOP in the midterm elections — when the party underperformed in what many expected to be a red-wave election — Trump has also been blamed for elevating polarizing Republican nominees who ended up losing in November.

Senator Tim Scott is one to keep an eye on, and of course, everyone is speculating about a run from Gov. Ron DeSantis.