Former President Donald Trump has once again dominated the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) 2024 presidential election straw poll.
Trump also won CPAC’s poll in July by a massive majority.
Attendants were asked to submit their favorite for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination anonymously.
Trump came in first place with 59 percent of the votes from the 2,574 attendees.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second but over 30 points behind Trump with 28 percent of the vote. No other potential candidates received more than two percent of the vote when Trump was included on the ballot.
According to a report from CBS News, with Trump running, “former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo received 2% of support. Senator Rand Paul, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, former U.S. ambassador the U.N. Nikki Haley, Senator Ted Cruz, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and former Vice President Mike Pence all received 1% of the vote. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a favorite among moderates, did not receive any votes, pollster John Mclaughlin said.”
Removing Trump from the hypothetical ballot gave DeSantis a landslide victory, with 61 percent of the vote, including two-thirds of Trump supporters.
On this version of the ballot, “Pompeo received 6%, Trump Jr. 6%, and Cruz, Paul, Noem each got 3%. Youngkin and Haley each received 2%. Pence and Senators Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, Tim Scott, Marco Rubio, and Tom Cotton all received 1%, along with former Trump Housing Secretary Ben Carson. 2012 GOP nominee Senator Mitt Romney received 0.3%, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received 0.2%, former Ohio Governor John Kasich and Hogan each received 0.1%,” according to the CBS report.
A massive 97 percent of the attendees said that they approve of Trump.
While the former president has not officially announced a 2024 campaign, he has been dropping hints that one can be expected — including during his speech at CPAC on Saturday night.
“[Democrats] are going to find out the hard way starting on November 8, and then again even more so in November 2024. They will find out like never before. We did it twice. We will do it again. We are going to be doing it again a third time,” Trump said.
The CBS report added that “Ninety-nine percent of attendees said they disapproved of Mr. Biden, and 98% said they ‘strongly’ disapproved of his policies. As for the greatest threat to the country, 61% said Mr. Biden’s ‘incompetence,’ followed by 35% who said China and 3% who said Russia.”
