While the nation still has the 2022 midterms to get through before moving onto the bigger, badder election cycle to follow, there is already plenty of speculation out there as to what we might see from either side of the aisle.
President Joe Biden is just now beginning to accumulate some policy “wins”, but his approval ratings remain far below water – and way outside of the realm of what the Democrats would feel comfortable with if he was going to run again. In fact, a number of prominent progressives are already beginning to back away from the idea that Biden should even run again at all.
On the right, it has only slightly more straightforward, as de facto GOP leader Donald Trump is still fairly well considered the presumptive nominee, with only murmurs about potential challengers being uttered in the dark corners of the punditry.
But a new poll could upend all of that.
In a hypothetical 3-way matchup, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis handily beats former President Donald Trump with a key demographic — Trump voters — but loses to President Joe Biden with everyone else.
Trending:
If DeSantis were to secure the Republican presidential nomination — a mighty big “if” — Trump would have to decide whether or not to run as an independent candidate.
That’s the scenario that was imagined in a new YouGov poll released this week that illustrates the dilemma facing Republicans in 2024.
The results were shocking.
Respondents were asked, “If the 2024 presidential election were held today between the following candidates, who would you vote for?”
Among registered voters, 44 percent responded “Joe Biden, the Democrat,” a full 21 points ahead of the runner-up, DeSantis — whose 23 percent support is a full five points higher than the 18 percent who said they’d vote for “Donald Trump, running as an Independent.”
And in that same matchup, among Trump voters, 51 percent said they’d vote for DeSantis, with only 36 percent saying they would vote for Trump.
Governor DeSantis has not made any official public statements on the possibility of him running in 2024, but his off-camera actions seem to indicate that there is at least some interest in the idea.
