According to a recent poll released on Tuesday by The Associated Press-NORC Center, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has surpassed former President Trump as the preferred leader of the Republican Party. The poll found that 22 percent of Republicans support DeSantis as their party leader, while 20 percent favor Trump. However, a larger percentage of Republicans, 34 percent, either didn’t answer the question or were unsure who should lead the party.
None of the other Republicans polled received more than 1 percent, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who recently announced her 2024 campaign and is the first major Republican to challenge Trump. Despite not yet declaring a presidential bid for 2024, DeSantis is considered by many to be Trump’s main competition for the GOP nomination.
While Trump is still widely regarded as the current leader of the Republican Party, with 19 percent of respondents identifying him as such, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy received significantly less support with 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
The AP-NORC poll was conducted from January 26th to January 30th and surveyed 1,068 adults, with a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.