(LibertyInsider.org) – The 2024 election is still a year away, but the fervor of the Republican presidential primary is already unveiling surprising shifts in the political landscape. According to a recent University of North Florida poll, former President Donald Trump maintains a significant lead over Governor Ron DeSantis in his own home state. The results are raising serious questions about DeSantis’ prospects on the national stage.
The survey, carried out by UNF’s Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL), asked 788 registered Republican voters to indicate who they currently intended to vote for in the upcoming election. Approximately 60% of respondents threw their hats behind Donald Trump. Only 21% said they intended to show support for DeSantis.
PORL cautioned that the data may contain a margin of error slightly less than 4%. However, the results still place Trump in the lead by almost 40 percentage points either way. The growing gap is undoubtedly bad news for DeSantis, who is likely to face increasingly challenging hurdles as he attempts to contend with enduring conservative support for the former president.
Notably, the same survey showed a similar lack of comparative support for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. All significantly trailed behind Donald Trump, capturing the attention of just 6%, 2%, and 1% of the respondents, respectively.
In a theoretical one-on-one matchup, Trump’s lead narrows slightly, but not by much. Around 59% said they would vote for the former president. Just 29% indicated that they would pick DeSantis, while 12% felt undecided or declined to respond.
The election is still too far away to render the exact implications of these findings clear, but that doesn’t make them any less far-reaching. The Republican Party could find itself forced to rally around a single candidate if it wants to consolidate voters before the general election. The race to the primaries could also bring intense tests of loyalty and ideological conflicts.
Copyright 2023, LibertyInsider.org
