Another straw poll asked conservatives who they’d want to see at the top of the ticket in 2024, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knocked out former President Donald Trump.
The poll was conducted over the weekend at the Western Conservative Summit, when 1,114 delegates were asked to select as many candidates as they wanted to see run in 2024 from a list of top contenders.
DeSantis received 71.0 percent of the vote, Trump received 67.8%, and Sen. Ted Cruz received 28.7%. Last year, DeSantis also topped the straw poll.
With 24.1 percent, Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson placed in fourth, ahead of Sarah Huckabee Sanders (18.4%), Sen. Tim Scott (17.4%), Mike Pompeo (16.7%), and Donald Trump Jr. (16.2%). Nikki Haley (15.5 points) and Mike Pence (14.3 points) behind Trump Jr.
Neither Trump nor DeSantis have declared a presidential run.
Meanwhile, a recent poll of Wisconsin state GOP convention attendees indicated that DeSantis is preferred by more Republicans than Trump as the nominee.
In a hypothetical 2024 field, DeSantis was favored by 38 percent of convention attendees, Trump by 32 percent, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley by 7%.
Potential 2024 challengers have been left in limbo, waiting for Trump to formally commit one way or the other on whether or not he will run. Over a series of spring primary races, Trump has been putting his ‘kingmaker’ standing within the party to the test, pitting Trump-backed candidates against a number of his incumbent enemies who refused to repudiate the results of the 2020 election.
Trump is still debating whether or not to run for president, but some of his aides claim that he might announce his candidacy as soon as this week.
Last month, DeSantis was ‘drafted’ into running for president by a new political action group managed by Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign chair.
DeSantis has indicated he is focused on winning re-election in Florida this November when asked if he has presidential ambitions.
The Florida governor has recently made national headlines for his measure prohibiting teachers from teaching gender and sexuality in kindergarten through third grade, as well as his feud with Disney.
DeSantis played coy when the 2024 question was posed to him on ‘The Truth with Lisa Booth’: ‘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.’
Trump and DeSantis have not publicly broken, as a number of other one-time Trump acolytes who now have their sights set on 2024 have done, but the two have gotten dangerously close.
Following DeSantis’ refusal to reveal whether he had received the booster shot in December during a press conference, Trump criticized politicians who refuse to say whether they’ve been boosted as “gutless” on OAN.
DeSantis added on the ‘Ruthless’ podcast two days later that he regretted not speaking out’much louder’ against Trump administration lockdowns during Covid-19’s early days.