According to a Tuesday poll, which found that more than four in 10 Republicans said they’d prefer Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump, talk of the Florida governor running for president in 2024 is picking up momentum among voters in the pivotal state of Michigan.
After Michigan narrowly fell to Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, winning the state was crucial to President Joe Biden’s success in 2020.
And the latest poll from WDIV and Detroit News indicates that the former president’s hold on GOP supporters there is eroding.
In the Republican primary of 2024, 45.2 percent of voters said they would support the president over DeSantis.
With a 41.6 percent support share, DeSantis is fewer than four points behind. Over 12% of respondents claimed to be unsure.
The Republican governor of Florida has established a strong national reputation as one of the Biden administration’s most vociferous detractors.
He and the president have fought over a number of issues, including Florida’s Parental Rights in Education statute, which Democrats and other detractors have called the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and his refusal to enforce COVID-19 measures.
But despite clinching the governorship with Trump’s endorsement in 2018, DeSantis has not ruled out challenging the ex-president for the White House.
In his home state of Florida, a poll taken on July 15 projects DeSantis soundly walloping Trump at the ballot box.
According to a Victory Insights poll issued on Monday, only 33% of Republican Sunshine State voters said they would support Trump, compared to 51% who said they would prefer DeSantis. The others weren’t sure.
DeSantis had a 38 percent share of the vote among a larger group of GOP candidates, according to a straw poll conducted in Wisconsin in May. Nikki Haley placed far behind Trump in third place with just 32% of the vote.
DeSantis defeats Trump by just two points in New Hampshire, the usual site of the first presidential primary, earning 39 percent of the vote there. The University of New Hampshire Survey Center conducted the survey in June.
But in Tuesday’s Michigan poll, it appears Trump has voters’ support to run again – at least for now.
Sixty-four percent of Republicans surveyed said they support Trump running for re-election a third time – 48 percent who ‘strongly’ believe in him, while 16 percent said they ‘somewhat’ back him.
The deepest divide between Trump and DeSantis voters was their education level. A majority of people with a college degree back the latter, while more people with a high school level of education support the former.
Even if he still receives around seven out of ten votes from his formerly dependable voting group, Trump still wins among so-called “Trump Republicans.” DeSantis is backed by more than 50% of those who identify as ‘traditional’ GOP voters.
Trump won the Republican primary in Michigan during his first campaign with little over a third of the vote.
It appears that a smaller field of candidates this time around will make it more difficult for Donald Trump to get a majority. Conservative Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former Ohio Governor John Kasich were almost deadlocked with approximately 24 percent apiece.
But in a recent interview Trump dismissed the notion that he views DeSantis as any sort of rival – while hinting he may formally declare his own campaign soon.
‘I don’t feel that,’ he told New York Magazine. Of the last Florida governor’s race, he added: ‘I endorsed Ron, he was at 3, and as soon as I endorsed him, he went to first place, he was not gonna win.’
‘I feel very confident that, if I decide to run, I’ll win,’ he said of a potential 2024 bid.
Trump is reportedly considering announcing his decision before the midterm elections – an unprecedentedly early launch but one he apparently hopes will dissuade potential challengers.