Even with the spate of recent indictments, former President Donald Trump is still polling at over 50% in most polls for the 2024 Republican primary election.
It’s a lead that pollsters and analysts using data analytics, like Rich Baris, founder of the People’s Pundit Daily, explain is statistically insurmountable.
Trump enjoys between a 30- to 44-point advantage over second place candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in many national polls. As Baris has explained, when candidates consistently poll above 50 percent, they will end up being the party’s nominee.
During his latest show, Inside The Numbers With The People’s Pundit, Baris reiterates that no other GOP candidate has the support to defeat Trump and secure the party’s nomination in next year’s primary election.
“A Republican candidate not named Donald Trump cannot win a presidential election in this country,” Baris stated. “And it’s time for reality checks, specifically around the Rust Belt.”
Trump soared to power as an anti-establishment, non-“swamp” figure, who stood for the interests of everyday Americans. He was untainted by the years of favor-trading and corruption that tends to define national level, inside-the-beltway American politics.
His ascendancy to the nation’s highest office sparked a national movement and revived a populism not seen in decades; one that even inspired a new generation of non-establishment candidates who want to take a wrecking ball to the old system.
Baris issued a stark warning that if the Republican Party ditches Trump and returns to corporate, establishment politics, it will effectively end the GOP.
“If Republicans go back to a party without Donald Trump, or go back to a party that’s perceived to have fought Donald Trump every step of the way; filled with a bunch of people who stabbed him in the back; filled with a bunch of people who betrayed him or cowered in the face of maybe, potentially their own persecution — whatever my American people are going to derive from what they’re seeing here — if they go back to that party, it’s over.”
This is not the only time that such a warning has been issued. Yet, even in the face of such dire warnings about the future of the Republican Party if efforts to oust Trump from within succeed, that is not stopping top GOP mega-donors who loathe the idea of a Trump return to the White House from seeking out alternative candidates to support.
So far, they’ve had a tough time.
Initially, the major donors backing alternate candidates rallied around DeSantis. Positioned as “Trump-Lite” — similar pro-America policies without the foul language and baggage — DeSantis was pitched as a viable candidate.
In May of last year, it was reported that DeSantis had at least 42 billionaire donors. But, just over a year later, after DeSantis formally announced his bid for president and had a few months of campaigning, support is dipping.
“DeSantis has not made any headway. The arguments that he’d be a stronger candidate and a more effective president than Trump have both fallen flat,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, told Newsweek.
The latest polling showing the DeSantis slide comes just weeks after wealthy donors began to consider backing South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
According to sources who spoke with POLITICO, donors have grown concerned after the DeSantis campaign’s “early campaign missteps,” as well as the Florida governor’s positions on controversial issues like abortion.
“Billionaire businessman Ronald Lauder, the Estée Lauder makeup heir who supported Trump in 2020, recently flew to South Carolina to meet with Scott, the state’s junior senator and long shot presidential candidate, according to three people aware of the late June meeting,” the outlet stated.
Other top donors saw Scott as a viable alternative to both Trump and DeSantis.
“A lot of donors that I’ve met are all curious and want to meet Tim and see what he’s about,” Andy Sabin, a metal mogul and Republican contributor, told POLITICO. “He’s the one guy running who’s got some personality and charisma. His delivery is terrific.”
Now, not even a month after those meetings took place, its being reported that top donors are looking to Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Billionaire businessman Thomas Peterffy calls Youngkin “an ideal candidate” in comments to Fox Business two days ago.
“I very much hope that he’s going to enter the race. People I speak to are all favorably inclined towards him,” Peterffy said. “If he entered, I think there would be tremendous enthusiasm.”
Peterffy also stated his belief that none of the other GOP candidates, including Trump, are capable of winning the general election next year.
Rupert Murdoch, billionaire owner of a global media empire, is also privately telling people that he would like to see Youngkin enter the race, according to the New York Times.
