Trump is still the big man on campus.
The Conservative Political Action Committee’s event held over the weekend saw Former President Donald Trump winning the straw poll.
According to results announced by CPAC on Sunday afternoon, the former President took 59% of the ballots cast, potentially welcomed news given the former President has repeatedly flirted with the idea of returning to the White House with a Presidential bid in 2024.
The 59% win is up four points from a year ago when he won 55% of the vote at the Conference. These results confirm his position as the most influential figure in the party, a role that has made him Kingmaker in the GOP primaries.
In a July straw poll in Dallas, Trump received 70% support.
The weekend’s poll also saw Florida Senator Ron De Santis coming in a distant second with 28% of the vote, an increase from the 21% he received a year earlier. None of the other 19 names on the ballot cracked 2% of the vote.
The results of the unscientific poll are unsurprising given that since Trump’s 2016 Presidential election win, the Conference 一 which is the most influential conservative gathering 一 has become a Trump-fest.
After the results came in, Trump’s spokesperson Taylor Budowich, stated on Twitter that the former President “continues to grow the conservative MAGA movement, which includes growing his political dominance.”
DeSantis also had tremendous support on a second question on the straw poll, which had to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. In that question, he received 61% support. However, Trump was not an option on that question, causing many of Trump’s supporters to back De Santis.
De Santis, a first-term governor, soared to popularity among conservatives during the pandemic for his resistance to lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions.
The same question saw former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo come in a distant second. He received 6.3% of the vote. Pompeo was followed by the former President’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., with 5.9% of the vote. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky received 3.3% each.
