donald trump leads the preferences in the Republican primary with 60 percent support, followed by the current governor Ron DeSantis, with 21 percentage points. This was revealed by a new survey conducted by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Laboratory (UNF PORL) on the preferences of Republican voters in Florida ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
Nikki Haley came in third place with 6 percent, followed by Chris Christie with 2 percentage points, and Vivek Ramaswamy with 1 percent. 8 percent of respondents indicated they did not know or refused to answer.
When voters were asked who they would choose in a hypothetical race between DeSantis and Trump, 59 percent indicated they would vote for Trump, while 29 percent leaned toward DeSantis, and the remaining 12 percent did not know or were unsure. He refused to answer.
Political science professor and director of the UNF Public Opinion Research Laboratory, Michael Binder, commented on the implications of these results: “Despite historically high approval ratings in polls, Governor DeSantis losing support in his home state does not bode well for his campaign nationally. Even if he eliminates the rest of the competition in a straight race, Trump leads DeSantis by 20 points.”
Florida voters support Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 elections
In addition to presidential preferences, The survey also asked about voters’ opinions regarding former President Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.. 71 percent of respondents said that the statement “he was simply exercising his right to contest the election” is closer to their point of view. In contrast, 16 percent of respondents said they were more in line with the statement “went so far as to threaten American democracy.” The remaining 14 percent indicated they did not know or refused to answer.
Regarding the 2026 Florida gubernatorial race, 40 percent of those surveyed said they did not know who they would vote for or refused to answer.. 22 percent indicated they would vote for Casey DeSantis, the current first lady of Florida, followed by 9 percentage points for Byron Donalds and Matt Gaetz.
When asked about the effect of a possible Ron DeSantis endorsement, 37 percent of respondents said an endorsement would greatly influence their election for Florida governorwhile 31 percentage points correspond to those who said it would have some influence, 10 percent mentioned that it would have very little influence and 18 percent said it would not have an influence at all.
(Also we recommend: Does Ron DeSantis wear heels to look taller? This answered)
Survey highlights low confidence in legislators
In another set of questions, respondents expressed their opinions on the U.S. House of Representatives and the recent impeachment of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Only 8 percent stated that they have a lot of confidence in the Chamberwhile 31 percent indicated some confidence.
On the other hand, 38 percent expressed very little confidence in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 20 percent said they have no confidence at all. Although some voters do not appear to have great confidence in the House of Representatives, the results suggest that leadership and decisions in Congress can influence the opinions of Republican voters in Florida.
The UNF PORL poll was conducted between October 23 and November 4, 2023. The sample consisted of 788 registered Republican voters who are likely voters in the 2024 presidential primary election. The definition of “likely voter” included those who had participated in the Republican primaries in 2022, 2020 or 2016.
Telephone calls made by live operators at different times were used to contact respondents. The poll’s margin of error was +/- 3.77 percent, and the response rate stood at 4.7 percent, calculated based on the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Response Rate 3 (RR3).
#Ron #DeSantis #Trump #acceptance #Florida #polls