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If Donald Trump runs for president in 2024, most Republican voters want Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate.
In a new Morning Consult/Politico poll, 27 percent of Republican voters said Trump should pick DeSantis as his potential vice president, compared to 15 percent who said they wanted former Vice President Mike Pence.
As a result of her 12 percent vote, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN, came in third place. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas placed fourth with 9 percent of the vote when respondents were asked to name a GOP running mate for Trump.
In an interview earlier this month, Trump implied that if he runs for president in 2024, he will not name Pence as his running mate.
“I don’t think the people would accept it,” Trump stated.
According to Trump, his differences with Pence are too great to overcome after the 2020 election.
“Mike and I had a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end. We had a very good relationship,” Trump said. “I haven’t spoken to him in a long time.”
“I was disappointed in Mike,” Trump reflected.
During a Fox News interview in January, Pence said he and Trump had not spoken since the fallout when Trump accused him of not overturning election results following allegations of widespread fraud.
The Morning Consult poll also showed DeSantis (13 percent) leading Pence (10 percent) in preference for GOP presidential nominees. Republican voters who do not want to have Trump back in the White House rank the Florida governor as their number one favorite alternative to Trump.
Despite this, Trump is still by far the most popular candidate within his party for the 2024 ticket, with more than half (56 percent) of respondents calling him their first choice. Additionally, 82 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of former President Trump, compared with 17 percent of unfavorable views.
Trump hinted again that he would run for President in 2024.
As part of an interview on the “Full Send Podcast” that has been taken down by YouTube for allegedly violating rules, Trump discussed Joe Biden, the Ukraine-Russia crisis, what’s happening in the United States under Biden, and whether he will run for president again.
“The question is, Don, you’ve hinted at it,” the host said. “Are you coming back and gonna run for President of the United States?”
“The campaign finance laws don’t really allow you to discuss that unless you’re going to literally go through a different process,” Trump answered. “So, I think a lot of people are going to be really happy. You guys might be really happy but I think a lot of people are going to be very happy. But, I’ll wait.”
During his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference late last month, President Trump gave the biggest hint yet that he will run for president again in 2024.
Amidst an outbreak of violence in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia, Trump took potshots at President Biden’s administration, administration. He said he would help the GOP get the majority back in the midterms and that he would win in 2024.
“The socialists, globalists, Marxists, and communists who are attacking our civilization have no idea of the sleeping giant they have awoken,” Trump said at the time.
“But they’re going to find out the hard way, starting on Nov. 8, and then again, even more so in November 2024, they will find out like never before. We did it twice and we’ll do it again. We’re going to be doing it again a third time.”
“The radical Left has tried to replace American democracy with woke tyranny,” Trump declared. “Our mission in 2022 and in 2024 is to take on this radical and power-hungry ruling class and to deliver them an electoral defeat.”
“I have no doubt that President Putin made his decision to ruthlessly attack Ukraine only after watching the pathetic [United States military] withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Trump continued.
“Yesterday, reporters asked me if I thought President Putin was smart. I said: ‘Of course he’s smart.’ … “The problem is not that Putin is smart, which of course he’s smart. But the real problem is that our leaders are dumb.”
The polling data from the Polling USA Twitter account shows that on average, Trump has been polling at 52.5 percent since November 2021, with DeSantis following far behind at 18.7 percent. In third place among the GOP’s preferred candidates for 2024, Pence received 9.3 percent of the vote on average.
729 registered Republican voters were surveyed between March 18 and 21 by Morning Consult/Politico. The margin of error was +/-4 percentage points.
In a new poll conducted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, voters in 77 swing districts were surveyed, which president Joe Biden won by an average of 5.5 points.
GOP candidates in these districts now lead by 4 points and have improved by 7 points since February 2021, according to the NRCC.
In these key districts, Biden’s approval rating is at 40 percent, while 55 percent disapprove of him.
The enthusiasm gap is also large – with 45 percent stating that they disapprove, but only 17 percent saying that they approve.
Democrat chances of keeping their majority in the House seem to be on the decline due to the state of the economy.
A total of 46 percent of battleground voters said their main concern was an economic issue, including 26 percent that it was inflation and food prices and 15 percent that it was jobs and the economy.
As reported by the NRCC, Republicans held a 24-point lead among Americans who said they are concerned about rising costs of living.
Republicans led Democrats by 20 points when it came to Americans most concerned about jobs and the economy.
Source: The Republic Brief