Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is closing in on Donald Trump in a new national poll, coming within single digits of the former president, Mediaite reports.
When asked, "Who would you rather see as the Republican nominee for President in 2024?" and given a choice between Trump and DeSantis, 45% of Republican and Republican-leaning respondents in the Yahoo! News/YouGov poll said they prefer Trump, while 36% said they prefer DeSantis.
The nine-point difference is the closest anyone’s come to Trump in a reputable Republican primary poll, according to Mediaite.
While Trump generally leads DeSantis by 20-30 points in Republican polls, the popular Florida governor came within about a point of the former president in a poll commissioned by never-Trumper John Bolton’s super PAC. In January and February, DeSantis trailed Trump by 23 points and 16 points, respectively, in the last two Yahoo! polls.
The latest Yahoo! survey follows a poll out of New Hampshire that shows DeSantis performing better against President Joe Biden than Trump and beating Trump in a 2024 primary matchup.
The surprising Republican primary poll was conducted June 24-27, before former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson offered dramatic testimony in which she claimed to have heard from Tony Ornato, another Trump aide, that Trump became agitated when he was told that going to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 was not an option.
Hutchinson claimed that Trump grabbed the steering wheel of the vehicle and lunged at a member of his security detail.
The Washington Examiner reports that Trump later called Hutchinson’s testimony a "fake story" on his social media platform Truth Social, and published reports indicate that people involved in the drive on Jan. 6 are prepared to dispute the ex-Trump aide's narrative.
According to Mediaite, DeSantis leads Trump by 4 points among respondents who "watched news coverage" of the Jan. 6 committee hearings, while he trails by 11 points among those who watched the hearings live. DeSantis trails Trump by 15 points among those respondents who did not watch.
Though neither Trump nor DeSantis has announced if he will will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2024, both are favored among the Republican Party.
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