DeSantis favorability among GOP gaining steam over Trump's, multiple polls show

by ALEC SCHEMMEL | The National Desk

Wed, December 14th 2022, 4:50 PM UTC

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis (AP){p}{/p}

FILE - President Donald Trump talks to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, during a visit to Lake Okeechobee and Herbert Hoover Dike at Canal Point, Fla., March 29, 2019. Republican 2024 presidential prospects descend upon Las Vegas this weekend as anxious donors and activists openly consider whether to embrace former President Donald Trump for a third consecutive run for president. Trump will be among the only major Republican prospects not in attendance for the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 18, 2022. Florida, Georgia, Texas and Virginia all started new law enforcement units to investigate voter fraud in this year’s elections based on former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential contest. So far, those units seem to have produced more headlines than actual cases. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

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Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis (AP)

WASHINGTON (TND) — Just a little over a year out from the GOP’s first presidential nominating contest, two polls this week confirmed similar polling from last week that shows former President Donald Trump could be losing support among Republicans and independent-leaning Republicans.

The latest polls from the Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY/Suffolk University and Yahoo News-YouGov all show Trump is losing steam among Republican primary voters.

In a hypothetical 2024 race between the two potential frontrunners, the WSJ poll showed DeSantis beat Trump 52% to 38%. The same poll found DeSantis’s favorability rating among likely GOP primary voters beat out Trump’s by 12-points.

The USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found an even wider gap between the two candidates than the WSJ poll did in regard to favorability. In that poll, DeSantis beat Trump by a massive 23-point margin.

Last week’s Yahoo News-YouGov poll illustrated a far slimmer margin between DeSantis and Trump. But still, if a hypothetical contest were to take place tomorrow, 47% of respondents said they would favor the Florida Governor while only 42% said they would support the former 45th President of the United States.

Prior to the midterms, many polls showed Trump was still favored in the GOP for president in 2024. But as the midterms got closer – during the final months before Americans would cast their ballots – that desire for Trump appeared to begin to wane.

To explain the surge in Trump’s waning support, some experts and commentators have pointed to DeSantis’s successful showing during the midterms, during which he beat his opponent by 20-points, and the less than favorable showing from Trump-backed candidates.

Now, with the midterms in the rear-view mirror, DeSantis appears to be continuing to gain ground.

“He IS in trouble” a veteran “Trump insider” reportedly told The Guardian.

However, Trump seems undeterred.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, the former president posted the results of a Politico/Morning Consult poll, which said it found 49% of potential Republican primary voters backed Trump, while only 31% backed DeSantis.

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