A new national poll gives Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a 7-point edge over former President Donald Trump in a potential presidential primary battle, the first survey of the 2024 cycle to do so — and the first poll since February 2016 to point to a weakening of Trump’s GOP dominance.
The , released Friday, found that 42% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents prefer DeSantis over Trump as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer, while 35% of those surveyed remain in the 45th president’s corner.
The results were a reversal of the numbers that YouGov , three weeks before the midterm elections.
Last month, YouGov found that 45% of GOP partisans supported Trump’s third White House bid, with 35% opting for the Florida governor, who romped to a 19-point re-election victory — while prominent Trump-supported Republicans went down to disappointing defeats.
The Nov. 9-11 online poll of 1,500 Americans, conducted in the three days after Tuesday’s midterm elections, included 413 self-identified Republicans and GOP leaners. The overall sample had a 3% margin of error.
A Feb. 16, 2016 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that found Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with a 2-point lead over Trump was the last time any national survey gave another Republican the first-place slot in a primary poll, according to RealClearPolitics.