If former President Donald Trump announced his 2024 White House bid in an attempt to rally support, it does not appear to be working for him.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released on Tuesday morning spells some bad news for Trump’s third presidential run.
The survey found Republican voters say they want his policies but a different leader by a 2-to-1 margin.
Thirty-one percent said they want Trump to run again, while 61% want someone else.
And respondents listed an alternative they would prefer over the former president — by a double-digit margin.
Fifty-six percent of voters said they would like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to be the Republican nominee in 2024. Meanwhile, 33% said the same about Trump.
New Suffolk/USA Today poll on 2024:
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) December 13, 2022
GOP Primary
DeSantis 56
Trump 33
General Election
Biden 47 – Trump 40
DeSantis 47 – Biden 43https://t.co/bT72kN07Nl
David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said, “Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump.”
The poll also found Republican support for a third Trump run has waned over the year. In July, 60% of Republicans wanted him to run again. In October, the number was down to 56%. And in the latest poll, the number dropped to 47%.
And in what could be an early warning sign for the 45th president, the poll found President Joe Biden leading him in a hypothetical rematch 47% to 40%.
By contrast, DeSantis led Biden 47% to 43%.
The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters and was conducted Dec. 7-11. It has a margin of error of 5.1 points.
It comes a month after Trump announced his new presidential campaign. And after he caused some headaches for the Republican Party by dining with a white nationalist, and calling for the termination of parts of the Constitution.
He later claimed he did not know the white nationalist and insisted he did not call for the termination of parts of the Constitution. But those are just the latest examples of the kinds of distractions Trump causes that it seems Republicans are fed up with.
The survey also comes after a series of high-profile candidates backed by Trump lost their races — while those not as closely tethered to him tended to fair better — leading to a disappointing midterm election for Republicans.
In 2015 and 2016, Trump caused headaches. But he could also in energetic, fun ways espouse some kind of vision for the country that attracted voters to him. And he was boosted by his upset presidential election victory in 2016.
Nowadays, he seems bored talking about policy and visions for the future and appears most interested in talking about his unfounded claims the 2020 election was stolen and other grievances.
Rather than the populist appeal of appearing to be a fighter for the working man, Trump’s new pitch appears to be: Vote for me because my time in office was not fair because of investigations and I just deserve another term.
Meanwhile, Republicans are looking around and seeing other potential competent alternatives who could advance their preferred policies, and it seems they’re getting tired of Trump with all his flaws. The question is, is this a blip in time or will this feeling continue through 2024?
