Former President Trump easily won the field in the Republican Party’s presidential nomination straw vote at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), but another big winner at the country’s largest annual gathering of activists and conservative leaders was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis .
Trump, as expected, easily won the straw vote of CPAC participants, with 55% support in the hypothetical Republican primary game of 2024. DeSantis, who finished in second place with 21% support, was the only other Republican to reach the two digits.
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“Twenty-one percent is quite an impressive number when you’re facing President Trump,” noted Karl Rove, a Fox News collaborator and veteran Republican Party adviser.
DeSantis, a first-term governor and Trump’s ally who became very popular with conservatives across the country last year for his resistance to COVID blockades and restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, easily overcame a second poll that did not include Trump . DeSantis ended with 43% support in the hypothetical nomination clash, with another strong Trump supporter, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, finishing second with 11%. All others cited in the poll with only one digit.
The CPAC was held in Orlando, Florida, in the home state of DeSantis. Rove, the mentor behind both presidential election victories for President George W. Bush, pointed to the element of the camp, saying: “There is an advantage for him [DeSantis] that this was done in Florida. “
But he also emphasized that part of DeSantis’ strong role was being “a successful conservative governor of a purple state”.
DeSantis, who narrowly won the government in 2018 and runs for re-election next year, is considered a potential aspirant for 2024 in the White House. In his CPAC speech on Friday, he promised never to allow the return of “the failed Republican establishment of yore”.
The results of his opinion poll appear to be resonating in the presidential primaries and in the first electoral states.
“New Hampshire Republicans will begin to tune in to everything Governor DeSantis says or does, because the number at that convention was a surprise and certainly bodes well for him,” said the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics , Neil Levesque, a former Republican congressman, adviser and adviser, told Fox News.
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DeSantis “proved that conservative principles and ideas work well,” Helen Aguirre Ferre, executive director of the Florida Republican Party, told Fox News. She said Florida is a role model and the CPAC opinion poll reflects support for Governor DeSantis’ “bold leadership”.
“Many CPAC participants congratulated Governor DeSantis and said that they wanted him to be the governor of their state, which makes sense because he showed that saving lives during a pandemic can be accomplished by protecting freedom and civil liberties,” she said.
The CPAC poll also appeared to cement Noem’s status as a rising star from the right. She was one of the prominent speakers during the four-day conversation, defending a pro-Trump message and highlighting her anti-lockdown and anti-mask policies in the midst of the pandemic, which captivated conservatives.
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Noem accessed Twitter on Sunday after Trump’s speech. “Trump delivered a powerful message in @cpac. He always put America and the American people first. I am proud to call you my friend. Very well, Mr. President! “
After his speech, Trump praised his participation in the CPAC secret vote. Asked during an interview on Fox News’ “The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton” on Sunday night about the chances of him running for the White House again in 2024, the former president said: “If you look at the type of numbers, the support is tremendous. But we will have to see. “
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Ninety-seven percent of voters in the poll said they approved the work Trump had done as president and 95% said they wanted the Republican Party to continue moving forward on Trump’s agenda. This is not surprising, given that the CPAC has turned into a Trump love party over the past five years. But only 68% said they wanted the former president to run again in 2024, and his support dropped to 55% on the 2024 horse race issue.
Rove argued that “Trump’s dominance over the party is diminishing and receding, whether he recognizes it or not.”
“Part of that is on January 6,” added Rove, as he pointed to the attack on the deadly attack on the Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters. While a small minority of the Republican Party, 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump on charges of inciting insurrection and 7 Republican Party senators voted to condemn the former president.
CPAC polls may not be the best thermometer of what’s to come.
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Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the poll in 2007 and 2008, but ended up losing the 2008 Republican Party nomination to Arizona Sen. John McCain. And Senator Rand Paul, from Kentucky, won the 2013-2015 polls that preceded the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But Paul ended up giving up his White House candidacy after a poor performance in the 2016 Iowa caucuses , the first dispute in the nomination calendar.
Senator Ted Cruz, from Texas, won the 2016 poll, with 40% support. Trump, who dropped out of the event hours before his speech, came in third with 15%. Of course, Trump won the Republican Party nomination and eventually the presidency.