Ron DeSantis, the GOP Governor of Florida, has managed to take the spot as the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination –sitting even higher on the list than former President Donald Trump — as part of a recent straw poll of attendees at a recent GOP convention in Wisconsin.
This poll was officially carried out by WisPolitics.com over the previous weekend. Trump and DeSantis were much further ahead than anyone else listed on the Wisconsin poll.
DeSantis garnered roughly 38% of the total vote while Trump managed to amass almost 32%. This was followed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley that managed 7%, and a trio of other candidates sat at almost 2.5%: former Vice President Mike Pence and GOP senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.
When questioned about if they wanted Trump to try and make a run for president in 2024, the people were very split: 43% responded yes; 31% responded no, and 22% stated they did not know.
Polls also highlight DeSantis outright crushing his Democratic opponent for the gubernatorial race in 2022. Back in late March, Saint Leo University Polling Institute Results discovered him leading former Florida governor Charlie Crist by around 16 points. 49%-33%, Annette Taddeo, who was the running mate for Crist back in the gubernatorial 2014 election and now sits as a state senator, by a massive 19 points, 49%-30%, and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried by a massive 24 points, 51%-27%.
2022 #FLGov General Election Poll:
Ron DeSantis (R-Inc) 49% (+16)
Charlie Crist (D) 33%
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Ron DeSantis (R-Inc) 49% (+19)
Annette Taddeo (D) 30%
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Ron DeSantis (R-Inc) 51% (+24)
Nikki Fried (D) 27% @SaintLeoPolls ~ 500 LV ~ 2/28-3/12https://t.co/0LDWYZjwTa— PollTracker (@PollTrackerUSA) March 30, 2022
The overall significance of this extreme margin of dominance that was displayed by DeSantis in Florida can be more easily understood by looking over Florida’s historically gubernatorial elections:
Back in 2010, GOP candidate Rick Scott took down his Democratic opposition, Alex Sink, by almost 49%-48%.
Then in 2014, while holding the office, Scott then went up against former governor Charlie Crist, who had sat as a GOP governor before winning in 2006, then started to run as an Independent, and then failed to take a Senate seat in 2010. Scott managed to take a slight victory over Crist in 2014, 48%-47%.
In 2018, DeSantis took a victory by eeking out with 40,000 votes over Democrat Andrew Gillum as part of an election in which over 8.2 million votes were recorded. This difference equates to being just about 0.4%.
The GOP legislators of Wisconsin have been battling for more conservative principles against the Democrats of the state for many years. Back in June of 2021, the state’s legislature pushed through a bill that would label the state as a “Second Amendment sanctuary.” The Senate for the state-approved the bill but was outright vetoed by Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
“If signed into law and deemed constitutional, the legislation would prevent Wisconsin law enforcement officials from confiscating guns from those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses, according to nonpartisan lawyers for the Legislature. That’s because there is no state law that corresponds with a federal law allowing guns to be taken from such offenders,” stated the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a recent report.