Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Trump both have the upper hand over President Biden in the key western swing state of Nevada in hypothetical 2024 election matchups, according to a new public opinion poll.
DeSantis holds a 42% to 36% advantage over the president in Nevada if the two politicians are the GOP and Democratic Party presidential nominees in the 2024 presidential election, according to a Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights survey.
The poll indicates Trump with a 42% to 40% edge over Biden among Nevada voters. Roughly one-fifth of respondents questioned in the Biden-DeSantis and Biden-Trump matchups said they were unsure who they would support in the 2024 election.
Biden narrowly carried Nevada by just over 2 percentage points in the 2020 election as he defeated then-President Trump to win the White House. However, the new poll indicates that the president remains unpopular in the Silver State, with a 40% approval rating and a 55% disapproval rating.
DESANTIS TIED WITH TRUMP, EVERYONE ELSE FAR BEHIND, IN 2024 GOP NOMINATION HUNT
The president has repeatedly said he intends to seek a second term in the White House but has yet to make a formal announcement. While it is expected he will run for re-election, Biden said during an interview with Telemundo during a stop in Florida Thursday that “I’m just not ready to make it.”
While Trump remains the most popular and influential politician in the GOP and arguably the party’s top fundraiser when it comes to energizing the grassroots, the early months of his latest White House bid have been anything but spectacular.
DESANTIS TOPS TRUMP IN CRUCIAL PRIMARY STATE POLL
Political pundits from both the left and the right torched his mid-November 2024 campaign launch at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He has been criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for controversial actions and comments he has made during the past couple of months. In the wake of a lackluster performance by the GOP in the midterm elections — when the party underperformed in what many expected to be a red wave election — Trump has also been blamed for elevating polarizing Republican nominees who ended up losing in November.
While the former president was once the overall front-runner in the early 2024 GOP nomination polls, DeSantis has eclipsed him in some surveys the past couple of months.
DeSantis has routinely dismissed talk of a 2024 White House race as he focused on his gubernatorial re-election last year, which he won in a landslide. However, he has dropped plenty of hints of a possible presidential bid since his re-election victory speech in November.
DeSantis has seen his popularity soar among conservatives across the country the past three years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a conservative culture warrior, going after media and corporations.
The new poll, which was conducted between Jan. 30 and Feb. 6 with 800 Nevada registered voters questioned online, has an overall sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. The survey does not meet Fox News polling standards.