A new Presidential Primary poll of Arizona Republicans indicates Gov. Ron DeSantis is nearly 10 points behind Donald Trump in a 2024 hypothetical matchup.
A survey conducted from Jan. 5-8 by Blueprint Polling shows the former President taking 43% support, with the Florida Governor garnering just 34% in a survey of 303 likely Republican Primary voters. However, there is room for optimism for DeSantis backers, according to the attached memo.
“Among Republican primary voters, former President Trump still commands a 9 (point) lead over DeSantis at this time. But older voters are notably cooling on the former President, as DeSantis leads Trump by 9 (points) among voters age 65 or older.”
Though older voters gravitated to the Governor, voters under 65 preferred Trump. The former President held a 35-point lead with voters under the age of 25, and a 14-point lead with voters between the ages of 45 and 54.
Previous polling of Arizona Republicans suggested DeSantis was the top second choice to Trump. This survey at least indicates the former President still retains primacy.
Though the latest Blueprint poll suggests DeSantis would face challenges even in a two-person Primary, there’s better news for supporters in a hypothetical matchup against President Joe Biden in a General Election, at least according to this survey of 618 likely General Election voters, which had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.
“DeSantis leads Biden by 6 (points) at this early stage in the cycle while Trump leads Biden in a 2020 rematch by 3 (points), with a whopping 19% who prefer that neither Biden nor Trump be on the ballot in 2024,” the analysis asserts.
Moderates and third-party voters would, at least in this survey, go DeSantis’ way:
“DeSantis does slightly better than Trump, thanks mostly to his support among 2020 third-party voters and non-voters. While liberal respondents supported President Biden 85%-8% in 2020 and moderates supported him 62%-26%, he will need to work to get back to these levels of support. Versus DeSantis, Biden leads among liberals 74%-14%, with 13% either undecided or saying they would not vote for either candidate; among moderates, he leads 39%-24%, with 23% saying they would not back either candidate.”
Though DeSantis continues to contend he’s not running for President, he did make a campaign swing to Arizona last year for failed candidates Kari Lake and Blake Masters.
At that stop, Lake offered a provocative quote comparing the Governor to the former President.
“He’s got BDE. I call it Big DeSantis Energy. He’s got the same kind of BDE President Trump has,” Lake said, introducing DeSantis as a Governor who brought “Trump strength” to Florida.
For his part, DeSantis offered Florida National Guard troops to Lake for border enforcement, a moot point given her electoral defeat.
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