<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655733055144,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000181-1f6f-d297-a5e3-1fef6dc50000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655733055144,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000181-1f6f-d297-a5e3-1fef6dc50000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55493791", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1035122"} }); rn","_id":"00000181-8161-db25-adf7-f97b18a70000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedAs the 2024 presidential race approaches, Republicans are eyeing two giants who could face off in the primary contest.
Former President Donald Trump is towering over the Republican Party, as 60% of Republican voters believe Trump should continue to lead the party, with only 34% believing the party should move in a different direction. However, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has grown in popularity for a 2024 run in recent months, drawing attention from Trump.
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“I don’t know if Ron is running, and I don’t ask him, It’s his prerogative. I think I would win,” Trump said in an interview with the New Yorker.
DeSantis earned national prominence for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Florida was one of the earliest states to reopen amid the virus’s spread, and DeSantis molded himself as an anti-Anthony Fauci, spurning a strong government approach during the pandemic.
Recent events have brought more attention to DeSantis as a 2024 candidate. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted his support for the Florida governor in 2024, and DeSantis responded by welcoming support from “African Americans.”
While DeSantis has repeatedly dismissed claims of him running in 2024, he has not ruled out the possibility. Instead, DeSantis has opted to assert that he “is focused on 2022.”
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Meanwhile, Trump has teased a 2024 run since leaving office in January 2021. At the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump asked the crowd, “The next Republican president. I wonder who will that be? Would anybody like me to run for president?” The crowd responded with a roaring cheer.
The former president has also received public support from politicians, even as the Jan. 6 committee attempts to reveal the role Trump played in orchestrating the Jan. 6 riot. The Department of Justice, which is conducting its own investigation of the Capitol riot, has been watching the proceedings and might be preparing to indict the former president, depending on how its investigation plays out.
“I hope President Trump runs again,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Business Insider last week.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has also praised Trump for “having a good four years” and said he “ought to do it again.”
However, Trump is not popular in all areas of the Republican Party, and the former president’s detractors might see DeSantis as a proper replacement.
“Trump is not that man. He does not have the capacity to win the kind of transformative election. He may have been, historically, a necessary figure, and I give him all credit for bringing to a screeching halt the progressive march that occurred under the Obama administration and threatened the country going forward with Hillary Clinton,” Former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Washington Examiner in early June.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Surveys have indicated different results if the two men were pitted against each other. A poll conducted at the Western Conservative Summit in Aurora, Colorado, in early June found that 71% approved of a DeSantis 2024 run, with 67% voicing approval for Trump.
However, Rasmussen Reports found in April that 40% of Republican voters believe Trump would win in a primary, compared to 22% who chose DeSantis.
