Trump surges to 13-point lead over DeSantis: poll

Former President Trump has flipped the field against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a possible 2024 GOP primary matchup, surging to a 13-point lead, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll.

Trump trailed DeSantis by 14 points as recently as December, but Trump’s solid lead now points to signs that DeSantis’s not-yet-announced campaign may be losing momentum.

In a head-to-head matchup, GOP voters surveyed said they would back Trump 51 percent to 38 percent for DeSantis, the poll found. Even in a more crowded field, with a poll that includes other announced candidates like former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump still takes 48 percent of the vote to DeSantis’s 24 percent support.

There, Haley took 5 percent support, and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) took 3 percent. All other candidates received 2 percent support or less, and 13 percent were undecided.

DeSantis has not officially announced a 2024 run, but he has effectively run a shadow candidacy for months including high-profile fundraising events and a national speaking tour.

He surged in polling in December after winning a landslide reelection in Florida and becoming an attractive alternative for some who wanted a new candidate after disappointing midterm results for the GOP.

Now, the polling bolsters Trump’s popularity over DeSantis, and it comes days after a slate of Florida congress members announced they would back Trump over their governor in 2024. Trump’s resurgence comes after his unprecedented arrest earlier this month.

When compared to the December poll, DeSantis fared worse among “very conservative” GOP voters, women and those with college degrees.

However, the poll found that DeSantis still tops Trump with more GOP voters holding a favorable image of him (84 percent to 78 percent for Trump) and more respondents saying he is the best choice to defeat President Biden in November (41 percent to 31 percent for Trump).

DeSantis leads Biden by 3 percent in a hypothetical general election matchup, with the same poll finding that Trump would fall 3 percent behind Biden.

The poll also found that GOP voters view DeSantis as the more traditional candidate with the best temperament but that Trump is a stronger leader, and more said he shares their values.