Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has eclipsed former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical matchup of favorites to secure the Republican National Committee's presidential nomination for 2024, according to a new Yahoo-YouGov poll.
The nationwide survey listed the opinions of 1,653 adults over a five-day period (Dec. 1-5), and DeSantis held a 5-point lead over Trump (47%-42%).
This week's poll represents a notable departure from mid-October, when Trump owned a 9-point lead over DeSantis (45%-36%).
Only Trump has formally announced his candidacy for the White House in 2024.
Other prominent Republicans, such as DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, current Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have yet to make any formal announcements about their presidential plans.
Some media outlets have been critical of Trump, essentially blaming him for Republican defeats in the recently completed elections.
However, while the media focuses on Senate candidate Herschel Walker losing in Georgia, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake losing in Arizona, or Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz falling short in Pennsylvania, Trump's endorsements still posted more than 200 victories in the midterms.
Trump referenced on his TruthSocial account Thursday, a recent survey from the Political Polls group has Trump possessing a 29-point lead over DeSantis — when taking into account a full field of potential Republican hopefuls for 2024.
In recent months, there have been signs of friction between the Trump and DeSantis camps. But there's no tangible proof of a so-called feud brewing between the candidates — especially since Trump helped boost DeSantis' gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
That aside, DeSantis has grown in stature over the last four years. For Florida's gubernatorial election last month, DeSantis crushed Democrat challenger Charlie Crist by 19-plus percentage points.
The margin of error for the Yahoo/YouGov poll — which didn't specify political preferences among the respondents — is 2.6 percentage points.
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