When It Really Matters, Trump Crushes DeSantis

W

Former President Donald Trump handily won the 2024 GOP presidential nomination poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas over the weekend, capturing 70% of the vote.

SO WHAT

The results show rumors of the supposed demise of Trump’s political influence have been greatly exaggerated.

The poll

On Sunday, CPAC announced its straw poll results, which made clear there’s still only one top dog among GOP voters.

  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who beat the former president last month in a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit, came in second but captured only 21% of ballots cast at CPAC.
  • No other potential GOP presidential nominees managed to get more than 1% of the vote.
Why Trump’s STRAW POLL win is more significant than DeSantis’

Some political observers saw DeSantis’ Western Conservative Summit straw poll approval victory in June as a possible sign that Trump was losing his hold on Republican voters. But …

  • As noted by Hot Air blogger Allahpundit, attendees at Denver’s Western Conservative Summit tend to be more policy-minded and thus less “representative of the wider Republican base.”
  • Another factor was the wording of the Summit’s question, which asked conference attendees to “vote for all candidates you approve of for President in 2024.” In other words, voters weren’t directly being asked to choose between Trump and DeSantis.
Money quote

“By the way, you have a poll coming out. I want to know what it is. You know they do that straw poll, right?” Trump said Sunday while delivering a speech to CPAC attendees. “Now, if it’s bad, I just say it’s fake. If it’s good, I say that’s the most accurate poll, perhaps ever.”

By We'll Do It Live