Donald Trump lags 20 points behind Ron DeSantis in polling of Republicans for their next White House candidate in a sign of the former president’s weakening grip on his party.
Seen as Trump’s main rival for the nomination, the Florida governor is also level pegging in a potential match-up against President Biden among national US voters, while Trump is projected to lose by ten points.
Rupert Murdoch has reportedly warned Donald Trump his media empire will not back any attempt to return to the White House, as former supporters turn to the youthful Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
After the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the US midterm elections, in particular the poor showing by candidates backed by Trump, Murdoch’s rightwing media empire appears to be seeking a clean break from the former president’s damaged reputation and perceived waning political power.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) had one heck of an Election Day, sealing his second term as governor by trouncing Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points.
But it didn’t take long for the 2024 presidential wars to start, as former President Donald Trump — on multiple occasions since the election — has fired shots at DeSantis, who is expected to be Trump’s most formidable competitor should the two find themselves vying for the GOP nomination in ’24.
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 YouGov poll, 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.
Republican Ron DeSantis was re-elected governor of Florida on Tuesday, setting him up for a possible presidential run in 2024.
Mr DeSantis, who won office by less than half a percentage point four years ago, easily defeated Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor who switched parties and won a congressional seat as a Democrat.
Mr DeSantis, 44, is widely expected to seek the Republican nomination for the White House in 2024.
Many on the left and some on the right are accusing President Trump of burning down the Republican Party on his way out the door. That seems rather hyperbolic, given the fact that nearly half the country has serious concerns about the way the election went down.
