Florida governor Ron DeSantis led former president Donald Trump by eleven points in a new poll of likely Republican primary voters by the Republican Party of Texas.
The survey, conducted by CWS Research on November 12 and 13 among likely GOP voters statewide, asked respondents, “If the upcoming 2024 Republican Primary for president were held today, and the candidates were Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Mike Pompeo, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, for whom would you vote?”
Forty-three percent of respondents said they would support DeSantis, while Trump followed in second with 32 percent of the vote. Thirteen percent of respondents said they were undecided, while 5 percent said they would support Pence.
When voters were ask to choose a candidate from that same group, minus Trump, 66 percent of voters said they would support DeSantis, 16 percent said they would be undecided, 8 percent said they’d support Pence and 5 percent said they’d support Haley.
The poll surveyed 1,099 likely GOP voters and has a 2.96 percent margin of error.
The results come after a similar poll conducted by CWS Research on behalf of Defend Texas Liberty PAC 2022 last month had Trump up 17 points on DeSantis.
The Texas GOP poll is just one in a series of post-election polls that have shown DeSantis gaining an edge on Trump, after Trump-backed candidates had a poor showing in the midterm elections last week.
A new YouGov survey of 413 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents found that 42 percent want DeSantis to be the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, while 35 percent would prefer Trump. The same poll conducted in mid-October found Trump with 45 percent support, leading DeSantis by ten points.
Trump said last week that he will make a “very big announcement” on November 15 at Mar-a-Lago. He is expected to announce his 2024 presidential bid. However, support for the former president appears to be dwindling after a promised red wave failed to materialize on Election Day.
Murdoch-owned media properties, long staunch supporters of the former president, appeared to turn on Trump. The New York Post published a cover featuring Trump portrayed as Humpty Dumpty with the caption: “Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?”
One day earlier, the New York Post cover celebrated DeSantis’s huge reelection victory under the headline “DeFuture.” Many other Republican pundits similarly suggested that Trump’s reign over the party had ended and that the Florida governor represents the future of the GOP.
Trump then lashed out at DeSantis on Thursday and claimed credit for the governor’s political rise.
“NewsCorp, which is Fox, the Wall Street Journal, and the no longer great New York Post (bring back Col!), is all in for Governor Ron DeSanctimonious, an average REPUBLICAN Governor with great Public Relations, who didn’t have to close up his State, but did, unlike other Republican Governors, whose overall numbers for a Republican, were just average — middle of the pack — including COVID, and who has the advantage of SUNSHINE, where people from badly run States up North would go no matter who the Governor was, just like I did!” Trump said in a statement.
Trump went on to say that his endorsement of DeSantis in 2017 served as a “nuclear weapon” going off, propelling DeSantis to the top of the GOP primary for Florida governor.