DeSantis holds double-digit lead over Trump among Tennessee Republicans: poll

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis leads former President Trump by 13 points among Tennessee Republicans in a hypothetical GOP presidential primary, according to a new poll. 

The Vanderbilt University poll, released Wednesday, found that 54 percent of registered Republicans would support DeSantis and 41 percent would support Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head 2024 primary matchup. 

The poll revealed a significant division in Republicans’ support based on whether they expressed more loyalty toward the “Make America Great Again movement” or toward the GOP. Six in 10 Republicans who indicated their allegiance is more to the movement said they would support Trump, while 66 percent of those who said the opposite prefer DeSantis. 

The poll is in line with recent national polls that have shown DeSantis with wide leads in hypothetical matchups with Trump. The Florida governor led Trump by 23 points in a USA Today-Suffolk University poll and by 14 points in a Wall Street Journal poll, both released this week.

Trump previously had comfortable leads over DeSantis in hypothetical primary polls in recent months, but the former president has received blame from many in his party over the GOP’s disappointing performance in the midterm elections last month. 

The party hoped to make sweeping gains in both houses of Congress, but failed to win control of the Senate and only won a narrow majority in the House. Many of the candidates that Trump backed in primaries earlier this year lost in key races. 

“Our results show that the Republican Party is clearly divided, and Republicans are trying to figure out who they are and which issues they want to prioritize,” Josh Clinton, a political science professor and co-director of the poll, said in a release. 

Pollsters found respondents overwhelmingly do not want a rematch of the 2020 presidential election, with 36 percent of those surveyed wanting Trump to run again and 22 percent wanting President Biden to run again. 

The poll was conducted from Nov. 8-28 among 1,180 registered Tennessee voters. The margin of error was 3.4 points.