Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is former President Donald Trump’s most formidable competition in a hypothetical match-up that has the two men tied.
On Tuesday (August 16), the University of North Florida (UNF) released a poll that showed DeSantis had a two-point lead over Trump among registered voters in Florida. Only 7 percent of the poll’s participants indicated they would vote for somebody else.
Despite many polls pit Trump against DeSantis, the UNF poll is the first to show that the latter has a significant chance of beating the man still widely considered the leader of the modern Republican Party in a battle for the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination.
But data varies. In a straw poll of CPAC attendees conducted this month, DeSantis was quite significantly defeated by Trump.
Yet a Suffolk University/USA Today poll showed DeSantis with a broader support base than Trump among Republican voters.
In battleground states like Michigan and early-voting New Hampshire, Trump and DeSantis are still in a stalemate, indicating how widespread the Florida Governor’s appeal has grown amongst Republican voters.
Dr. Michael Binder, a professor of political science and leader of the UNF poll, pointed to Trump and DeSantis being the “two most popular Republican names being discussed for 2024,” adding that the Florida Governor was “edging [Trump] out in their home state.”
He also touched on the speculation regarding whether Trump and DeSantis were friends or mere acquaintances, acknowledging that “we’ll really find out after the midterms and the 2024 race starts to heat up.”
