Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the only Republican who can beat President Joe Biden in Georgia in 2024, according to a new Public Opinion Strategies (POS) poll.
"DeSantis beats Biden. Trump loses to Biden. Pence loses to Biden," were among the polling firm's key findings.
In a DeSantis-Biden matchup, 45% of survey respondents said they would vote for DeSantis, versus the 42% who said they would vote for Biden.
If former President Donald Trump were the GOP nominee, 43% said they would cast their ballot for Trump and 44% said they would cast their ballot for Biden, according to the poll.
Given the choice between former Vice President Mike Pence and Biden, 43% of voters would prefer Pence, compared to 44% who said they would prefer Biden.
While DeSantis comes out on top in this survey, all of its findings lie within the 4.4 percentage point margin of error.
That hasn’t stopped the popular Florida governor from embracing the message that only DeSantis can win in 2024, however.
"You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing," DeSantis told donors on a Thursday call, according to The New York Times.
"Joe Biden, Trump and me," he said. "And I think, of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him."
DeSantis is referencing battleground state polls that have consistently shown him performing better than Trump in matchups against Biden. According to Florida Politics, these include Public Opinion Strategies surveys in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin from April, as well as Arizona polling released by POS on Friday.
"I think the voters want to move on from Biden," DeSantis said on the call. "They just want a vehicle they can get behind" and there are "just too many voters that don't view Trump as that vehicle."
While DeSantis, who has yet to declare his candidacy, might appear to have an edge over Republican rivals in a theoretical general election, winning the primary may prove to be more difficult, give his second-place position in Georgia and elsewhere.
In a Landmark Communications poll of 800 likely Republican primary voters conducted Sunday, DeSantis received 32% support, while Trump garnered 40%.
The Public Opinion Strategies poll was conducted May 15-17 and surveyed 500 registered Georgia voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.