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In an unexpected twist, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida emerged as the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 — even ahead of former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis received 38% of the vote while Trump received 32%.
Voters were split when asked whether they want Trump to run for president in 2024. 43% of voters said yes, 31% said no, and 22% were unsure.
The straw poll was conducted by WisPolitics.com and taken by attendees at a Wisconsin GOP convention.
Overall, DeSantis and Trump far outperformed the rest of the field.
Following DeSantins and Trump, voters selected Nikki Haley at roughly 7% and three candidates at roughly 2.5%, including former Vice President Mike Pence and GOP senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
More on this story via Daily Wire:
Polls show DeSantis crushing his Democratic opposition in the gubernatorial race for 2022; a late March Saint Leo University Polling Institute Results found him leading former Florida governor Charlie Crist by 16 points, 49%-33%, Annette Taddeo, who was Crist’s running mate in the 2014 gubernatorial election and now serves as a state senator, by a whopping 19 points, 49%-30%, and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried by a staggering 24 points, 51%-27%.
The significance of the margin of dominance DeSantis displayed in Florida can be understood by reviewing Florida’s incredibly close gubernatorial elections in the past:
In 2010, GOP candidate Rick Scott defeated his Democratic opponent, Alex Sink, 49%-48%.
In 2014, as the incumbent, Scott ran against former governor Charlie Crist, who had served as a GOP governor after being elected in 2006, then became an Independent and then lost a Senate race in 2010. Scott eked out a victory over Crist in 2014, 48%-47%.
In 2018, DeSantis squeaked through by a tiny 40,000 votes over Democrat Andrew Gillum in an election in which over 8.2 million votes were cast, a difference of .4%.
— Advertisement — Wisconsin GOP legislators have been fighting for conservative principles against the state’s Democrats for years. In June 2021, Wisconsin’s legislature passed a bill that would declare the state a “Second Amendment sanctuary.” The state Senate approved the bill but it was vetoed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
