Ron DeSantis gives a victory speech at the Tampa Convention Center on Nov. 8. Photo: Octavio Jones/Getty Images
In the wake of midterm elections, more American voters prefer that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 than former President Trump, according to a new YouGov poll.
Why it matters: Some Republicans have blamed Trump for the party's failure to materialize a "red wave" in last week's elections, which also dented Trump's public perception as a kingmaker within the Republican Party.
- The new poll, conducted in the days after the midterms, shows a reversal of another Yahoo News/YouGov poll last month which showed that more voters preferred Trump over DeSantis to be the GOP nominee in 2024.
- Trump issued a lengthy statement Thursday deriding DeSantis in a sign that he is prepared to declare war against any Republican seeking to usurp him.
The big picture: Overall, 23% of voters said they'd prefer to see DeSantis as the Republican nominee for president in 2024 while 20% said they'd prefer it to be Trump, according to the poll.
- Notably, 41% of voters said they would prefer neither DeSantis nor Trump as the Republican nominee.
- Among Republican voters, 41% said they preferred DeSantis compared to 39% who preferred Trump, while 8% said they preferred neither.
Methodology: This YouGov survey was conducted through web-based interviews from Nov. 9-11, 2022 among a random sample of 1,500 U.S. adults. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. The margin of error is ±2.7 points.