In a new straw poll, Former President Donald Trump is leading other possible candidates by a huge margin. The candidate who landed in second place is now being eyed as a possible vice presidential candidate.
A huge improvement from past polling, the anonymous CPAC straw poll shows Donald Trump winning with 70 percent of ballots cast, far ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who took second place with 21 percent of the vote.
Seventeen other presidential contenders were included in the straw poll. DeSantis was the only one to break double digits. No other candidate earned more than one percent.
This is a major increase from a similar straw poll at the CPAC event in February of 2021, when Trump’s support for 2024 was only at 55 percent.
Trump has not officially announced his candidacy for 2024, though he has continually hinted at running. It is obvious what GOP voters want, but many are worried that the former president won’t want to put his family through the ordeal of another campaign and presidency.
His speech at the CPAC event in Dallas, Texas, which lasted around 90 minutes, gave many people hope that he’ll be back in the White House in the future.
“I want to personally thank each and every one of you for your incredible support. With the help of everyone here today, we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists, and the critical race theorists,” Trump vowed. “We will secure our borders, we will stop left-wing cancel culture, we will restore free speech and free elections and we will make America great again.”
“The people in this room have been some of the staunchest and fiercest supporters [of] the greatest political movement in the history of our country,” he added.
The poll also asked another question: who would be the favorite in the presidential race if Trump were to decide not to run in 2024. Again, GOP voters seemed pretty united on their answer, giving Ron DeSantis 68 percent of the vote. No one else came close. Pompeo landed in second place with 5 percent of the vote, with Donald Trump Jr. and Ted Cruz tying for third at 4 percent.
But if Trump were to run in 2024, CPAC straw poll shows….
Trump 70%
DeSantis 21%
Rand Paul 1%
Nikki Haley 1%
Ted Cruz 1%
Tucker Carlson 1%
Kristi Noem 1%
Mike Pompeo 1%
Undecided 1%
Everyone else 0% (includes Hawley, Pence)— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) July 11, 2021
Many political analysts are reading into the poll that Ron DeSantis shows great promise as a vice presidential candidate. With his popularity among GOP voters, it is clear that uniting on a ticket with Donald Trump would be something that the voters could rally behind.
