DeSantis Takes Massive Lead over Trump in 2024 Florida GOP Primary Poll

Caroline Downey
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Governor Ron DeSantis leads former president Trump by 45 percentage points in a new poll of 2024 Florida Republican primary voters conducted in the wake of DeSantis’s landslide reelection.

Should DeSantis join Trump in announcing a 2024 bid, 66 percent of GOP voters in the Sunshine state would favor their governor, compared to 21 percent who remain loyal to the former president, according to a recent poll conducted by Sachs Media and presented in a newsletter produced by Florida Politics.

When asked who they trust more to be a good role model for young people, respondents chose DeSantis over Trump 89 percent to 4 percent. A significant 81 percent of participants said they have more faith in DeSantis to have a “moral foundation for choices.”

Over three quarters of respondents, 76 percent, believe DeSantis is more capable than Trump of uniting voters around a common cause. On diplomatic affairs, 68 percent of surveyed residents say DeSantis is more likely to be respected by other world leaders compared to 26 percent for Trump.

The poll was conducted on November 11, just three days after Election Day, using a random sample of a “minimum of 600 respondents” representing a spectrum of demographics including race, gender, age, political affiliation, and region. It has a margin of error of +/- 4 percent.

In another November 11 survey, Florida voters were asked to explain why Florida Republicans outperformed GOP candidates nationally. The vast majority of Republican and politically unaffiliated respondents answered that “Republican candidates have shown voters their leadership, not just promises.” A much smaller percentage of these two groups said that Democrats’ lack of organization was responsible for their opponents’ shortfall in Florida.

In the midterms, DeSantis and many other Florida GOP candidates achieved sweeping victories despite the party’s national struggles. DeSantis’s sweeping victory, and those of down ballot Florida Republicans, stand in sharp contrast to the performance of Trump’s hand-picked Senate candidates and the MAGA House and gubernatorial candidates he endorsed in the primaries.

Trump announced his third presidential run earlier this week, forecasting a tumultuous road for the GOP leading up to the 2024 nomination. The failed 2020 candidate has been targeting his potential 2024 rivals, including DeSantis and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. At a rally before the midterms for Pennsylvania senate candidate Dr. Oz, who lost his race, Trump boasted that he was polling way above “Ron DeSanctimonious” for 2024. Trump later threatened to release unflattering information about DeSantis if the governor dared to challenge him for president.

Asked this week about the attacks leveled against him by Trump, DeSantis urged political observers to “go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night.”

“All that’s just noise,” DeSantis said of Trump’s criticism and the 2024 speculation. “Really what matters is: ‘Are you leading? Are you getting in front of issues? Are you delivering results for people? And are you standing up for folks?’ If you do that, then none of that stuff matters.”

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