Gov. Ron DeSantis leads former President Donald Trump among Republican primary voters as a potential 2024 nominee and outpaces him in favorability, according to a poll released on Wednesday.
The Florida Republican defeats Trump 52% to 38% among GOP primary voters in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup for the nomination, with 36% saying they would “definitely” vote for DeSantis compared with 29% who are definite for Trump, a Wall Street Journal poll found.
DeSantis also outpaces the 45th president in favorability.
Eighty-six percent of Republicans who say they are likely to vote in a primary or nominating contest view DeSantis, 44, favorably, compared with the 74% who see Trump favorably.
The governor also leads the 76-year-old former president in favorability among all registered voters 43% to 36%.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, shown speaking Dec. 1 in Miami, tops Donald Trump among likely Republican primary voters. Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/Shutter
Former President Donald Trump, shown as he prepares to announce he’s running again in 2024 at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 15, is trailing Gov. Ron DeSantis among Republican primary voters. REUTERSTrump’s numbers are the lowest in the Wall Street Journal poll going back to November 2021, and his favorable rating among Republican voters has tumbled to 74% from 85% while the rate of those who view him unfavorably has jumped to 23% from 13%.
President Biden, 80, who says he intends to run for re-election, topped Trump 45% to 43% in a hypothetical 2024 general election race with 12% undecided.
DeSantis, who is coming off a convincing 19-point re-election victory on Nov. 8, is expected to emerge as the most threatening political rival to Trump, who announced he would mount a third run for the White House a week after the midterm elections.
But the poll points out that the former president is hampered by the investigations into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, his keeping classified White House documents at Mar-a-Lago and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Gov. Ron DeSantis greets supporters in Florida on Nov. 3. APAn underwhelming performance by Republican candidates in the midterms, including by those backed by Trump, have taken a toll as well.
The Wall Street Journal survey came out a day after a USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed that 61% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents would rather have another candidate besides Trump run in 2024.
And they favor DeSantis 56% to 33% in a primary matchup against Trump.
Trump on his Truth Social platform Tuesday posted the results of a Morning Consult poll that showed him leading DeSantis 49% to 31% among Republican primary voters.
But it also found that 49% of the likely GOP primary voters say they have seen, read or heard something positive about DeSantis over the past week, compared to the 32% who say that about Trump.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at an event at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 18. APAnd 47% of those voters say what they have seen, read or heard about Trump has been negative.
For DeSantis, that number was 8%.
Still, a lot depends on whether more Republican candidates enter the race, which could have the effect of thinning out the support, much as it did to Trump’s favor in the 2016 Republican primary.
“It is going to be a competitive primary,” Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who works for a pro-Trump super PAC and conducted the survey with Democratic pollster John Anzalone, told the Wall Street Journal. “The two favorites right now would be Trump and DeSantis.”
The poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters between Dec. 3 and 7.
It has a plus/minus 6 percentage-point margin of error.
