DeSantis fares better than Trump in one-on-one Biden matchup: YouGov poll

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fares better in a hypothetical head-to-head 2024 matchup against President Biden than former President Donald Trump does, according to a new YouGov poll out Friday.

If the next presidential election comes down to a choice between Biden or Trump, the incumbent comes out on top at 39 percent to 36 percent. But pitted against DeSantis, Biden would end up in a closer race.

In that scenario, 36 percent said they would support Biden, while 35 percent would back the Florida governor.

In either case, a relatively significant percentage of respondents said that they simply wouldn’t vote: 15 percent for a Trump-Biden matchup and 16 percent in a contest between DeSantis and Biden.

The poll of 1,000 U.S. adults is the latest evidence of DeSantis’s growing national profile amid speculation that he could mount a bid for the White House in 2024. The Florida governor has seen his political clout swell among Republicans in recent years, and early polling shows him gaining ground on Trump in a hypothetical GOP presidential primary.

The YouGov poll is also a sign that voters may not be particularly keen on another Trump presidency, even with Biden’s sagging approval ratings.

To be sure, most voters aren’t thrilled about the possibility of Trump or Biden running again in 2024. 

Only 28 percent of respondents said that Trump should mount another bid for the White House, compared to 54 percent who said that he shouldn’t. When it comes to another Biden campaign, only 21 percent said that he should run for a second term, while 55 percent said that he shouldn’t.

Biden did see a tick up in his approval rating in a separate poll released Thursday by Gallup, rising to 44 percent. That’s his highest rating in that poll in a year.

The YouGov poll surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults from Aug. 18-22. It has a margin of sampling error of +/-3.4 percentage points.