DeSantis beats Trump again in conservative straw poll

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bested former President Donald Trump in a straw poll conducted at the 2022 Western Conservative Summit.
• Conference attendees were asked which candidates they would approve for president.
• Of the 1,114 respondents, 71 percent voted for DeSantis and 67.7 percent voted for Trump.

A 2024 presidential straw poll conducted on Saturday resulted in victory for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has bested former President Donald Trump for the second year in a row.

The recent poll was taken at the 2022 Western Conservative Summit (WCS) in Aurora, Colorado. There were 2,000 attendees at the venue and thousands more attended online. The Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University sponsored the event.

Attendees were asked to select candidates they approved of for president. The poll received 1,114 responses.

DeSantis received 71 percent approval, which is over 3 points higher than the 67.7 percent approval received by Trump.

This is the second time that DeSantis bested Trump in a WCS poll. In 2021, DeSantis came in at 74.1 percent while Trump came in at 71.4 percent.

The recent poll showed that the support for DeSantis and Trump was significantly ahead of the rest of the possible candidates.

Journalist Michael McGonigle, of Fox News and local Colorado publication The Daily Citizen, shared a picture of the poll results.

Here are the top ten candidates according to the poll results:

1. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – 71.01%
2. Former President Donald J. Trump – 67.68%
3. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – 28.73%
4. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson – 24.15%
5. Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – 18.40%
6. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott – 17.41%
7. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – 16.70%
8. Donald Trump, Jr. – 16.16%
9. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – 15.53%
10. Former Vice President Mike Pence – 14.36%

Trailing behind were former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D) at 13.4 percent, Fox News host Tucker Carlson at 11.8 percent, and Tesla founder Elon Musk at 10.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) all scored under 1 percent.

While all of the names listed in the poll are considered possible candidates, none of them have officially announced a presidential run in 2024.

The most likely contenders for a Republican nomination are DeSantis and Trump.

Source: The Hill