A new poll indicated former Republican President Donald Trump is losing favor among his base should he seek presidential reelection in 2024.
As Trump is exploring a potential early campaign to return to the White House, a New York Times/Siena College poll indicated nearly half of his party's primary voters are setting their sights on other Republican candidates for 2024.
When asked which nominee they would like to see running in the next general election, many Republican primary voters mentioned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—even though the 43-year-old politician has not yet confirmed he would launch a campaign as he is busy gearing up for a November reelection in his state.
The demographic showing much opposition to Trump seeking reelection was responders under the age of 35–64% of whom told pollsters they would not vote for him in the upcoming presidential election.
In addition, 65% of college-educated primary voters said they would not vote for Trump if he runs against other Republican nominees.
The New York Times suggested Trump's declining popularity among his party was the result of him continually spreading false claims of a stolen election that eventually resulted in the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Although 75% of primary voters believed Trump was “just exercising his right to contest the election,” 20% of discontented primary voters said Trump "went so far that he threatened American democracy."
One-quarter of the 350 pollsters said they would nominate DeSantis, who is the only other candidate to receive double-digit support. Coming in third at 7% was Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
The remaining three of the five preferred nominees included former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley–each of whom received 6% support from responders–and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, with a support of 2%.
DeSantis, who was educated at Yale and Harvard, received more support from younger Republicans with at least a Bachelor's degree than Trump.
The New York Times/Siena College poll also indicated there would be Trump detractors who would not vote for him, with 16% saying they would instead favor President Joe Biden, would vote for a third-party candidate, wouldn't vote at all, or were undecided.
“I hope he doesn’t run at all," said Richard Bechtol. The 31-year-old Republican voter in Columbus, Ohio, said he was "disturbed" by Trump's behavior leading to the January 6 Capitol riot.
However, Bechtol did express he would support Trump in 2024 in a rematch with Biden.
Said Bechtol:
“Biden is getting bullied by the left-wing of his party and I worry about his cognitive function as well."
"Actually, I worry about that with Trump, too. It’s really a lesser-of-two-evils situation for me.”
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