Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis bested former President Donald Trump in a GOP presidential straw poll over the weekend among attendees of the Western Conservative Summit.
The 1,114 attendees were asked to mark however many candidates they want to see running in 2024. (They could choose more than one.)
These were the standings
- DeSantis: 71.0%
- Trump: 67.7%
- Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas: 28.7%
- Trump HUD Sec. Ben Carson: 24.2%
- Trump White House Press Sec. Sarah Huckabee Sanders: 18.4%
- Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.: 17.4%
- Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: 16.7%
- Donald Trump Jr. 16.2%
- Trump U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley 15.5%
- Former Vice President Mike Pence: 14.4%
DeSantis won the same straw poll last year, the Daily Mail reported.
No candidates have announced a run yet, with most GOP hopefuls waiting to see whether Trump intends to seek another term before announcing. Trump is generally seen to be the favorite if he chooses to run, and he has dropped several hints that he may do so.
A recent poll of Wisconsin state GOP convention goers also found that more wanted to see DeSantis as the party's 2024 nominee than Trump, the Daily Mail noted.
In that poll, 38% picked DeSantis, 32% Trump and 7% Haley.
In May, Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign chairman Ed Rollins launched a draft DeSantis for president effort, the Mail reported, but the governor has played coy, telling reporters he is focused on this year's reelection effort.
"My goal would be, if we win the election really big, people like you who analyze these things are going to say: 'The days of Florida being a swing state are over. Florida is a red state.' And I think that's because of a lot of what we've done," DeSantis said recently on "The Truth with Lisa Booth" podcast.
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