Lone Star State Republicans continue to be committed to Donald Trump as their 2024 standard-bearer, but a new survey suggests the real battle is for second place.
Polling from CWS Research shows Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley in a dead heat for the runner-up spot, with both the Florida Governor and the former South Carolina Governor garnering 11% support.
For those looking for optimism on behalf of DeSantis, there’s this: He is up 2 points from the September poll, while Haley holds her 11% support.
Both candidates are 50 points behind the former President in the poll of 458 Texas Republican voters. No other candidate has more than 3%.
In hypothetical head-to-head polling, DeSantis gets 22% against Trump’s 63%, while Haley gets 20% against Trump’s 70%.
DeSantis qualified for the Texas ballot at the end of November, days after Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed Trump. But if this most recent poll and other opinion surveys are to be believed, he won’t get much traction in the Lone Star State.
A University of Houston and Texas Southern University poll of 524 registered Texas GOP Primary voters from October, reported by Axios, shows the former President with 58% support, DeSantis at 14%, and Haley with 6%.
The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll had Trump ahead of DeSantis by 49 points, 62% to 13%.
DeSantis brought his campaign to Texas this summer, calling attention yet again to undocumented immigrants entering at the Mexican border and promising to leave them “stone cold dead.”
He vowed to use “deadly force” via the U.S. military when asked during a news conference after his campaign event, saying that if some “cartel operatives” got “dropped,” it would change their attitude.
The Governor also visited in September to discuss energy policy proposals. He promised that if elected President, he could bring gasoline back to $2 a gallon.
Yet despite these efforts, he’s poorly positioned to get any of Texas’ 162 delegates, which are to be apportioned on a winner-take-all basis based on the results of the March 5 Primary.
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