A recently released poll from CNN shows Republican party voters are split between former President Donald Trump (R) and another Republican candidate, primarily Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In the poll, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were asked who the party should nominate, and 50 percent said Trump, while 49 percent preferred a different candidate. However, when voters were posed with an option for another candidate, DeSantis was the top recipient with 21 percent of the vote. Some who answered simply said they wanted a candidate other than Trump. The next closest potential candidate was a tie between seven other possible candidates garnering only one percent of the poll, each.
The poll did show a change in Republican voter preferences, as the same demographic was asked in 2018 if they would prefer to re-nominate Trump, and approximately 75 percent did.
On the flip side, Democrats are very uninterested in President Joe Biden being re-nominated, with 72 percent of polltakers saying “just someone besides Joe Biden.”
In the last month, DeSantis and Trump, while denying any personal rift, have taken seemingly subtle jabs at one another. Many pundits felt Trump was taking a stab at DeSantis when DeSantis did not disclose if he received the COVID booster shot.
“Well, I’ve taken it,” said Trump. “I’ve had the booster. Many politicians – I watched a couple of politicians be interviewed and one of the questions was ‘did you get the booster?’ – because they had the vaccine – and they’re answering like – in other words, the answer is ‘yes’ but they don’t want to say it. Because they’re gutless. You gotta say it – whether you had it or not. Say it. But the fact is that I think the vaccines saved tens of millions throughout the world. I’ve had absolutely no side effects.”
Just a few days later, DeSantis came out and said while being featured on the Ruthless podcast that he disagreed with the former Trump administration’s early handling of the COVID pandemic.
“I never thought in February, early March, that [the coronavirus] would lead to locking down the country,” said DeSantis on the Ruthless podcast. DeSantis continued by saying he wishes he would have spoken out sooner.
Trump then said an alleged rift between him and DeSantis was “totally” fake news.
“It’s totally fake news,” Trump said. “I think Ron said it last week, he said it very publicly, ‘The press is never going to get in the middle of my friendship with Donald Trump. We’re not going to do that stuff.’”
The poll was conducted from January 10 through February 6 with a margin of +/- 3.6.
– – –
Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
